
Class 
Book 



K / 



Copyright K°. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



INDIA 

AND 

DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL 



INDIA 

AND 

DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL 



REV. Z. F. GRIFFIN, B. D. 

FIFTEEN YEARS A MISSIONARY 
IN INDIA 



THIRD EDITION 



AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY 

PHILADELPHIA 

BOSTON CHICAGO ST. LOUIS 

TORONTO, CAN. 






Copyright 1912 by 
Z. F. GRIFFIN 



Published February, 191 2 



\^-'(o'o'(o'S 







PREFACE 

I AM issuing- this third edition because the second edi- 
tion is exhausted, and there seems to be a demand 
for such a book. There are more pages in this edi- 
tion than in the second. I have given the latest re- 
ports on the revenue of the country, and also the con- 
stitution of the new Legislative Council of the viceroy, 
and the latest revised Protestant missionary statistics. 

I have briefly discussed British rule in India as I 
have seen it and know it During our last term of 
service the unrest was at its height, and we were in 
the very storm-center of the cyclone. This is referred 
to from the standpoint from which I have viewed it. 
I have tried to present the facts and conditions in a 
plain, simple manner, so that any one can understand 
the situation as far as possible without actually being 
on the ground. 

The book was issued in the first place to answer 
questions regarding that great country, which every 
writer consulted took for granted that the people knew, 
but which, as a matter of fact, in general they very 
little understood. Simple questions about their build- 
ings, occupations, mode of farming, productions, char- 
acter of the natives, religions, methods of mission 



Preface 

work, obstacles, etc., are answered in a concise but 
clear way. 

I am indebted to Benjamin Aitken, Esq., of Poonah, 
India, for the facts concerning the new legislative 
council of the viceroy, and to Rev. Geo. Henderson, 
of Calcutta, for the revised missionary statistics. My 
historical facts were gathered from Hunter, Murray, 
Grant, Sherring, and others. 

The cuts, with two or three exceptions, are from my 
own neeratives. 

Z. F. GRIFFIN. 
Keuka Park, N. Y., January i, 1912. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Historical Outline 9 

11. British Rule in India 25 

III. Political Divisions 34 

IV. Unrest in India 47 

V. European Life in Bengal 54 

Vl. RoADS^ Highways, and Waterways ... 64 

VII. Architecture 76 

VIII. Productions 83 

IX. Climate 88 

X. Scenery and Sights 92 

XL Some Pests of India 103 

XIL Some Characteristics 112 

XIIL Occupations 126 

XIV. A Glance at Hinduism 163 

XV. History of Protestant Missions 179 

XVI. Mission Work and How Carried On. . 187 

XVII. The Prospect for Success 208 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGS 



Schools of low-caste people assembled for Christ- 
mas prize-giving, Santipore . . . .Frontispiece 

A Bengal rural village 5i ^ 

A Bengal bazaar {business street) 57 

Tenting in Bengal 64*^ 

Off for cold-season work in tents or bungalows . . 64 

Bringing in rice sheaves from the Held 66 

Bringing rice to market 66 

A typical house of the wealthy class, Bengal ^6 

A temple of Juggernath 7<5 

Building a house for the poorer class yS'"^ 

The Taj Mahal, Agra 78 

A pilgrim preparing his cakes by the roadside. ... 86 

Calcutta coolies 86 

Procuresses near Kali's temple, Calcutta 94^ 

Devotees bathing in the Ganges, Calcutta p4 

A typical Bengal tank P9 

Mission boat 99 

Traveling in the mountains. A dandy 102 ^ 

One of the sources of the Ganges, Himalaya 

Mountains 102 



List of Illustrations 



PAGB 



A Bengal barber zuho has found a job lOp 

A sacred bull, Mohadabc lo^ 

/ 
Bringing pottery to market /Ji 

The boy zvho herds cattle ^3^ , 

Washermen in the foreground; a zmter-carrier on 

the left 149^ 

One zcay of crossing rivers, Bengal 14P 

A szveeper 154 

Burning the dead, Benares 154 

On the banks of the Ganges, Benares; stone god, 

Mohadabe 164 

Temples on the banks of the Ganges, Benares. . . . 164 

A sadu, " holy man," spends his life zi'andering 

from place to place lyo 

A devotee, arms rigid lyo 

Juggernath, zvith his sister and brother, seated on 

his car 1/2 

A pilgrimage by prostrations i/^ * 

A " holy man " on a bed of spikes ij^ 

Handling logs for industrial-school zvork, Santi- 

pore, Bengal 18^ 

Thatching a bungalozi^ ig^ 

A typical sazmnill i^^ 

Zenana teachers starting for zvork igy 



INDIA 

AND 

DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL 

CHAPTER I 

An Outline of the History from the Time of the Rig- 
Veda to the Beginning of the Reign of Queen 
Victoria as Empress of India 

THE early home of the Aryans was no doubt 
somewhere in central Asia. In course of time 
the country in which they lived became too 
small for their numerous offspring, and ad- 
venturous bands left their homes in quest of food or 
plunder or pastures new. These marauding bands 
went in different directions, farther and farther from 
the old home land. Some of them settled in Persia; 
some of them founded the Greek and Italic nations; 
some the Celtic and Teutonic races; and others the 
Slavs of Europe. Others traveled more eastward and 
southward, and making their way through mountain 
passes, settled in India. Here they found rich pastures 
for their flocks and herds, and fertile land which they 
began to cultivate. But they also found that their 
right to these lands and pastures was disputed; for 
others had possession of them, and had occupied them 
for centuries before the Aryans entered the Punjab. 
Those who had possession were the aborigines of the 

9 



/ India and Daily Life in Bengal 

country, who were by no means ready to relinquish 
their claim. For the Aryans to gain possession, there- 
fore, meant war and conquest ; but, little by little, terri- 
tory was acquired, and step by step the conquerors 
came farther south and east. 

It was while they were watching their flocks and 
cultivating their land in the Punjab, that they began 
the composition of the Rig-Veda. This contains the 
most ancient records of the Aryan family, and is the 
source of most of our information of this remote 
period, extending as it does from 2000 B. C. to 1400 
B. C. This is called by historians the Vedic period. 
This book is really hymns addressed to nature, which 
the Aryans worshiped; but in the hymns there are so 
many allusions to domestic and social life, wars, etc., 
that they form a history of the times in which they 
were composed. We must bear in mind that the 
hymns were only composed and sung at this remote 
period, but not written. They were sung, and handed 
down from father to son. probably as Homer was by 
the Greek rhapsodists. It was not until the following 
age, or what some historians style the Epic age, that 
these were arranged and compiled. 

In the Vedic age the Hindus had very few of the 
customs and characteristics which they have at the 
present time. This was a patriarchal age. In their 
simple devotions the head of the family was also the 
priest of the family, and his home was his temple. The 
head of the family was also a warrior as well as a cul- 
tivator and herdsman. Caste had not yet made its ap- 
pearance; girls had some choice in the selection of 



Historical Outline 1 1 

their husbands ; the cruel custom of burning the widows 
on the funeral pyre of the dead husband was unknown ; 
and wife and husband worked together in social 
equality. The flesh of animals, together with barley 
and wheat, milk and butter, seems to have constituted 
their simple diet. There can be no time fixed upon 
which we can put our finger and say, " At this date 
things began to change." The change was gradual 
but sure; for after six hundred years we find that the 
people had settled in the valleys of the Ganges and 
Jamna rivers, and were performing pompous and 
solemn religious rites, which sometimes, in the case of 
royal sacrifices, lasted for years. This period is called 
by historians the Epic age. Now we find professional 
priests have come on the stage, who give discourses on 
the texts of the Vedas, and who attempt to explain 
their hidden meaning. The writings of the Hindus, 
called the Brahmanas, are speculations and explana- 
tions concerning the Vedas by generations of priests. 

As these kingdoms increased in territory and popu- 
lation, they also made advancement in education and 
in the administration of their government. Men duly 
appointed collected taxes, administered justice, and 
led armies to battle either against the aborigines or 
against neighboring kingdoms of the Aryan family. 
Members of kings' households learned the art of shoot- 
ing with bow and arrow, and riding in war chariots, 
while priests multiplied religious rites and observances. 
It was during this period that the great Hindu epic, 
Mahabharata, was begun. It was not written as we 
have it now, for portions of it have been lost, and later 



12 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

writers have attempted to supply the deficiency, or 
alter or distort the text, or add mere myth, until, as 
a historical record of the war it pretends to describe, it 
is considered of but little value. This is a record of a 
great war between two powerful races, or tribes, called 
the Kurus and the Panchalas. There are evidences that 
other neighboring tribes were also drawn into the 
great conflict. Though advancement had been made in 
arts and sciences, they were none less warlike than 
their forefathers. Though much of the Mahabharata 
is allegorical, it throws a great deal of light on the 
customs of the people of that age. It teaches us that 
caste was beginning to assert itself, but had not 
formed those insurmountable barriers which later ages 
witnessed. It shows that the seclusion of women was 
not practised, but that the highest in rank of these 
went to witness the public feats in archery and other 
sports, and that maidens selected their own husbands. 
It also teaches us that vice was not unknown; for 
Yudhesthera, the oldest of the Pandavas, who is the 
most righteous character in the epic, and was w^ell 
versed in religious knowledge, after he came into pos- 
session of the kingdom, not only gambled it away, but 
also staked and lost himself, his brothers, and his beau- 
tiful wife, Draupadi. 

From 1 200 B. C. to 1000 B. C, we find the Videhas, 
Kosalas, and Kasis branches of the Aryan family in- 
habiting what is now known as North Behar, Oude, 
and the country about the present city of Benares. 
These bold races had pushed through the jungles, 
crossed rivers, subdued aboriginal tribes, and founded 



Historical Outline 13 



strong and powerful kingdoms. The writing pre- 
served, which throws some Hght on Indian history of 
this period, is the Ramayana. Like the Mahabharata, 
scholars claim that it is utterly valueless as a history of 
any war ; but the side-lights it throws out are valuable 
in showing the progress made in conquest, as also the 
elevation to power of the priestly class. 

The Ramayana teaches plainly that no longer do the 
Kshatriya, or warrior caste, assert their opinions and 
their rights to any great extent; but even Rama, the 
hero of the epic, " though he encounters and defeats 
a Brahmin warrior, Parasa-rama, does so with many 
apologies and due submission." Sita, the heroine of 
the poem and wife of Rama, though purely a mytho- 
logical character, begins to tell the early tale of woman's 
complete and uncomplaining subjugation. Though 
caste lines have been made, there are examples where 
women have passed from one caste into another, and 
even married into a different caste. Moreover, dur- 
ing this time, and up to the close of the Epic period, 
only three castes were recognized; namely, the Brah- 
min, Kshatriya, and Vaysya ; and these associated to- 
gether and ate together, and felt that they were a 
united people. 

Though they had extended their territory far down 
the Ganges Valley during the many preceding centu- 
ries, they were not essentially a warlike people. They 
seem to have inherited the devotional instincts of the 
family as the European portion did the warlike pro- 
pensities. They had made considerable advance in 
education, but their schools and colleges were more for 



14 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

religious instruction than anything else. They had 
discovered the lunar zodiac in astronomy, but their 
knowledge in this was used more for regulating the 
sacrifices than for any scientific purpose. Considerable 
progress was made also in developing a code of laws 
for the government of the people. 

From the year looo B. C. to 242 B. C, historians 
call the Rationalistic period. During these years the 
Aryans conquered many aboriginal tribes, and ex- 
pended their kingdom into central India and to the 
Arabian Sea on the west, and to the Bay of Bengal on 
the east. This period seems to have been a practical 
period, and all their writings and teachings in religion 
and science were reduced to the most concise expres- 
sions. The literature of this period is called Sutra 
literature, and the object was to replace the volumi- 
nous writings of the previous age by aphorisms. This 
style of literature rapidly spread, and schools sprang 
up in many places to teach it. These Sutras reduced 
the extended ceremonials of religious rites of the Vedas 
to mere manuals. In law we have the code of Manu, 
defining the duties of citizens, and in social life the 
Grihya Sutra, defining the domestic duties. 

Grammars also were written, and rules for pronun- 
ciation. In this they were in advance of the Greeks 
or the Romans. The grammar of Panini, in the 
Sanskrit, compiled 350 B. C., is still the foundation of 
the study of the language. The science of geometry 
was discovered and somewhat developed, and the phi- 
losophy of Kapila is comparable to that of Aristotle 
in its reasonings. 



Historical Outline 15 

No one can read the literature of this period, or 
any portion of it, without seeing that caste prejudices 
had taken a terrible hold, and that the Brahmins ex- 
ercised their privileges to the great humiliation and 
detriment of the common people. The oppressions 
prepared the way for Buddhism. The people were 
anxious to be freed from the galling yoke of the Brah- 
mins, so that when Prince Gautama, the founder of 
Buddhism, announced his principles with regard to the 
brotherhood of man, they were hailed with joy. 
Though the Brahmins had prepared the way for the 
spread of Buddhism, and though the people seemed to 
flock around the standard of Buddha, it was three cen- 
turies after his death, which occurred 447 B. C, be- 
fore Asoka, the greatest of India's emperors, declared 
it to be the religion of the State. Such was the hold 
that Hinduism had upon the people. If it took Bud- 
dhism, which had much in common with Hinduism, 
three centuries to convert the people, where is the 
ground for discouragement in Christian missions? 

Hitherto all the light that has been thrown on In- 
dian history is gathered from the writings of the 
Hindus, which are mostly of a religious nature ; but to- 
ward the close of this period, India began to come in 
contact with portions of the family which had, many 
centuries before, drifted westward. Herodotus, the 
Greek historian who lived in the fourth century B. C., 
speaks of the Hindus as the greatest nation of the ages. 

The same writer tells us that Darius the Persian sub- 
jugated a portion of India, and that his ships sailed 
down the Indus to the sea. Later, Magasthenes, a 



/ 6 India and Daily Life in Bengal 



Greek, in the fourth century B. C, came to India and 
lived with one of the kings, and wrote of its civiHza- 
tion and conquests. These writings show that all of 
India, except some of the deserts and some of the 
mountain fastnesses, had been conquered, and the 
aboriginal tribes either subjugated and Hinduized, or 
else driven back into these barren places and mountain 
retreats. 

Toward the close of this period other important 
events were taking place, among which was the inva- 
sion of the country by Alexander the Great. He en- 
tered India 327 B, C., and had it not been for the 
intense heat of the summer and the southwest mon- 
soon, he might have marched his conquering armies 
through the whole length of the land. It was not be- 
cause there were no native armies to oppose him, but 
because the native kings were jealous of each other, 
and often would rather espouse the cause of Alex- 
ander, if a local enemy could thereby be humbled, than 
unitedly to oppose him and save their country. But 
the heat was a more powerful enemy than the Indian 
armies, and Alexander resolved to withdraw from the 
country. He constructed a fleet upon which part of 
the army sailed down the Indus, and thence up the 
Persian Gulf; and part went overland, through Belu- 
chistan and Persia. He founded some cities during his 
brief stay, of which the present city of Haidarabad is 
one. Later, other marauding Greek bands came into 
the country, and as far south as Oude, but established 
no kingdoms. 

Internal dissensions were rife in this period, and 



Historical Outline 17 

there were frequent changes of dynasties. This condi- 
tion made the inhabitants an easy prey to any strong, 
warhke, and united people. From the west such a 
host was coming in upon them. In the year 126 B. C, 
the Scythian, or Tartar, tribe came down through the 
mountain passes of the northwest, and estabhshed a 
foothold in the Punjab. They came to stay and to ex- 
tend their territory, and it is recorded of one of their 
kings, Kanishka, that he extended his kingdom as 
far south as Agra. 

Valiant kings arose in India to repel and expel these 
northern hordes, and the struggles were long and the 
results various. In the year A. D. 515, the great 
Hindu king, Vikramaditya, arose and regained pos- 
session of the greater part of India, and established 
peace, which lasted for two centuries. This was also 
the period in which the Puranas, one of the sacred 
books of the Hindus, was written, and it also wit- 
nessed the rapid decline of Buddhism. In the eighth 
century A. D., the Rajput, who had hitherto scarcely 
been reckoned to be within the pale of the Aryan 
Hindus, rose to power. 

The founder of this dynasty was a brave general in 
Gujarat, Senapati Bhalarka by name, who declared 
his Independence, and, carrying the banner of Puranic 
Hinduism, established Brahmin supremacy everywhere 
in India. In the twelfth century A. D., India was 
ruled by three Rajput kings — Prothu Rai Chohan, at 
Delhi and Ajmir ; Jaya Chandra Rathore was king of 
Kanauj, Allahabad, Oude, and Benares; and Bhima 
Deva was ruler of Gujarat and central India. 



t8 India and Daily Life in Bengal 



But the (lays of the brave Rajputs, who had ruled 
India for nearly four centuries, were numbered. Sha- 
habuddin Ghori, a Mohammedan conqueror, entered 
India A. D. 1191, and led his victorious armies through 
the country. The Rajputs, after making a brave but 
unsuccessful attempt to save their kingdom, returned 
to Rajputana, leaving the Mohammedans the undis- 
puted possessors of the country. Shahabuddin Ghori 
was a practical ruler, and at once set about the task of 
thoroughly organizing his kingdom. The name of 
Ghori's Indian viceroy was Kutub-ud-din, who upon 
the death of his sovereign established a new dynasty 
called the Slave dynasty, from the fact that Kutub-ud- 
din was once a Turkish slave. The great minaret 
twelve miles from Delhi, which is one of the wonders 
of the world, was erected in memory of Kutub-ud-din. 

Other Mohammedan dynasties followed, as they 
could by intrigue or power gain the ascendency. In 
1398 the great Tartar general, Tamerlane, swept over 
the country, devastating cities and murdering the peo- 
ple; but when satiated with blood he retired toward 
central Asia. 

In A. D. 1526, Baber entered the country and es- 
tablished the Mogul dynasty. The country was divided 
into many petty kingdoms, ruled both by Hindu princes 
and Mohammedan kings. Baber was a lineal descend- 
ant of Tamerlane, and, like him, was fierce and war- 
like, and took delight in the task before him. As Sha- 
habuddin had done centuries before, so he now went 
from one victory to another, until at his death, which 
occurred A. D. 1530, he held possession of India as far 



Historical Outline 19 

as Behar in the eastern valley of the Ganges. His 
son, who succeeded him, was not able fully to hold to- 
gether the kingdom on account of family dissensions; 
but his grandson, Akbar the Great, who began to reign 
A. D. 1556, thoroughly established the Mogul Empire. 

Of the work of Akbar and his successors we have 
no time to speak. Suffice it to say that the finest archi- 
tecture of India belongs to this period. The palace of 
Delhi, with the peacock throne, was built by one of 
these kings, and also the Taj Mahal at Agra. This 
latter is the achitectural gem of the world, and was 
built by Shah Jehan in honor of his wife, Mumtazi 
Mahal, whose tomb it is. Aurangzeb was the last of 
the Mogul kings who ruled with any force or inde- 
pendence of character, and the empire began gradually 
to crumble after his death. 

The rising of the Sikhs and Mahrattas among the 
Hindus, and the appalling depredations of the Afghans, 
as they made six successive invasions, were the direct 
causes which contributed to the fall of the Mogul Em- 
pire. It may be said to have disappeared, so far as 
exerting any influence on the country, in 1765 ; though 
for nearly another century they kept up an appearance 
of sovereignty. Mohammed Bahadur Shah, the seven- 
teenth Mogul emperor, and last of the race of Timur, 
for his complicity in the mutiny of 1857 was banished 
to Rangoon, where he died in 1862. 

In the meantime Great Britain appeared on the field, 
and taking advantage of, or pity on, the utter chaotic 
condition of the country, began to establish a foothold 
there with a view of becoming a nation in India. The 



20 India and Daily Life in Bengal 



English had long been in India under the name 
of the East India Company. This company was or- 
ganized in A. D. 1600, with a capital of seventy thou- 
sand pounds, and had purchased some possessions in 
the vicinity of Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta, and 
had opened up many trading points here and there. 
The whole of Calcutta, with the surrounding country, 
was purchased from the viceroy of Bengal. He sold 
his valuable territory in order to get money to carry 
out his scheme for the succession of the Mogul Empire. 
The present Fort William, one of the largest forts in 
the world, was begun in 1707. Fort Saint David, on 
the Coromandel coast, had also been erected. With 
money, a few strong forts, and a few brave soldiers, 
the English were in a position to take advantage of the 
conditions as above described. 

It is not the object of this brief narrative to give a 
detailed account of the history of the rise of the Eng- 
lish in India. There are many well-written histories 
on this subject, and they may be found in almost any 
bookstore. A few leading facts will, however, be in 
place. The French had in some places, and the Portu- 
guese in others, established themselves. The Mahrat- 
tas and the Sikhs were at war with the Moguls, and 
other internal wars also prevailed. 

During part of this time France and England were 
fighting, which necessarily involved their India pos- 
sessions. It soon became known that English soldiers 
were good fighters, so the East India Company was 
often appealed to for help by one or the other of the 
many contending parties. At the close of nearly all 



Historical Outline 21 

these contentions and battles, favorable treaties for the 
English were entered into and new territory was ac- 
quired. After the company had secured a strong foot- 
hold, the settled policy was to acquire new territory as 
fast as possible. The history of the conquest of Ben- 
gal, and the achievements of Lord Clive; of Warren 
Hastings and his operations; the first Mahratta war, 
and the war with Mysore; Lord Cornwallis, and the 
second Mysore war ; the Marquis of Wellesley, and his 
settled policy of making the English the one para- 
mount power in India, and his third Mysore war and 
second Mahratta war; and the great acquisitions of 
territory under these administrations — these make 
very interesting reading, and may be found fully 
treated in Hugh Murray's history of India, or in that 
of James Grant, or in any other standard work. The 
further conquests of Lord Minto, and his consolidation 
of the conquests of Wellesley; Lord Moira, and his 
war with Nepaul, by which the hill stations of Naini 
Tal, Mussourie, and Simla were acquired from the 
brave and warlike Gurkhas; the war in central India 
with the Pendaris; and the last Mahratta war — form 
interesting chapters. 

Following these eventful times was the first Burmese 
war, 1 824- 1 826, by which Assam and other portions 
of the northeast came into the possession of the Eng- 
lish. During the time of Lord Bentinck, suttee, or the 
burning of the live widow on the funeral pyre with the 
dead body of her husband, was prohibited and done 
away with. In connection with this we may see the 
elasticity of the conscience of the Hindu. When the 



22 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

order was passed prohibiting this most inhuman prac- 
tice, a deputation of Brahmins waited on the viceroy, 
and told him that their consciences told them that 
suttee was the right thing for them to practise. Lord 
Bentinck replied : " Very well, follow the dictates of 
your conscience; but the Englishman's conscience tells 
him that whoever aids or abets in murder shall be 
hanged. You burn your widows according to your 
conscience and we will hang you according to ours." 
Suffice it to say, no Brahmins were hanged for con- 
science' sake. 

Soon after the acquisition of Assam came the Af- 
ghan war, which resulted in the utter defeat of the 
English, and in which four thousand fighting men and 
twelve thousand camp followers perished either in the 
snowy defiles of Kurd Kabul, or from the knives and 
guns of the treacherous Afghans. The first Sikh war 
gave Lahore to the British, and under the administra- 
tion of Lord Dalhousie, Oude, Nagpore, and parts of 
the Punjab and Burma, and other possessions were an- 
nexed. Lord Dalhousie turned the sod for the first 
railroad, and established in certain parts of the coun- 
try telegraphic communication. 

The next important event in the history of India is 
the terrible mutiny of 1857. The causes of this wide- 
spread disaffection have been discussed time and again. 
Whatever may have been the cause or causes, the di- 
rect occasion was the introduction of the Enfield rifles 
and the greased cartridges to be used with them. It 
was rumored among the sepoys (native soldiers), who 
were both Hindus and Mohammedans, that the grease 



Historical Outline 23 



used in these cartridges was made from the tallow of 
the cow and the fat of the hog. The hog is unclean 
to the Mohammedan, and the cow is sacred to the 
Hindu, so that report was a sharp two-edged sword 
which cut both ways. It is probable that the real cause 
of the disaffection lay in the fact that the people saw 
that Western ideas and ways were creeping into the 
country, and that in time, unless something was done 
to check it, their ancient customs and religion would 
be overthrown. 

The first overt mutinous act occurred February 25, 
at Berhampore, one hundred and sixteen miles north 
of Calcutta. This act was the Nineteenth Bengal Na- 
tive Infantry's refusing to accept the cartridges. Soon 
the blood of an English officer w^as shed, which was 
the signal for the lighting, so to speak, of the fires of 
war on every hilltop. By May this spirit of rebellion 
had become so widespread and so rampant, that every 
Englishman in India felt prepared for any news. It 
came from Merut and told of the burning of the Eng- 
lish quarters, and the massacring of men, women, and 
children by the sepoys. From Merut they went to 
Delhi, only twelve miles away. 

But why attempt to tell of the terrible carnage of 
that year? Delhi, Lucknow, and Cawnpore are al- 
most synonyms for all that is brave, and true, and suf- 
fering on the part of the English — men, women, and 
children; and all that is cowardly, treacherous, and 
savage on the part of the sepoys. Taking into account 
the character of the combatants and those connected 
with them, and the terrible odds against the English, 



24 India and Daily Life in Bengal 



there has probably been no event in the history of any 
nation of more thrilHng interest than the sepoy mutiny 
of 1857. Though Delhi fell, it was retaken; though 
sixty thousand sepoys surrounded the residency at 
Lucknow, it was relieved by five thousand British sol- 
diers ; though Cawnpore had witnessed the most terri- 
ble butchery of innocent women and children ever re- 
corded, and had come fully into the hands of the rebels, 
it was not long held. Town after town was reoccu- 
pied which had been taken by the mutineers, and fort 
after fort was stormed, until in January, 1859, the 
echo of the last gun died away, and the last fugitive 
was chased across the frontier. 

On the first of November, 1858, at a grand durbar 
held in Allahabad, Lord Canning, the viceroy of India, 
sent forth the royal proclamation that the Queen of 
England had assumed the government of India. Thus 
was brought to a close the history and existence of the 
East India Company, the greatest commercial and 
military company that ever existed; and thus began 
the reign of Queen Victoria as Empress of India. 
Religious neutrality and justice were the guiding prin- 
ciples of the queen, and in no time since the age of 
the Rig- Veda, have the people of India been so secure 
in the possession of their property and their civil rights 
and religious privileges as to-day. 

In these pages I have tried to give a bird's-eye view 
of the events of the centuries, the knowledge of which 
will, I trust, give us a better idea of the people, the 
country, and the problems before us as Christian 
workers. 



CHAPTER II 
British Rule in India 

IN the previous chapter I gave a summary of the 
leading events of the nation, and referred to the 
occupancy of the country by the East India Com- 
pany, and the refusal of Parliament to continue 
the charter of this company, and Queen Victoria be- 
coming Empress of India. Let us now see how the 
Indian government is carrying out the pledge which 
Queen Victoria made to the India people when she 
became empress in 1858. Broadly speaking, the pledge 
vv^as this: in matters of religion the government was 
to remain neutral, but in matters of justice it was to 
take a firm stand. 

There are times when these two fundamental prin- 
ciples conflict. In the mind of the Hindu custom be- 
comes a religious act. For centuries it was the custom 
of the Hindu to marry his daughter at a not later 
age than ten years. Medical missionaries in particular, 
and in fact the whole missionary body, saw the cruel 
wrong inflicted on these poor, innocent little girls, and 
they raised their voices so loud that the government 
heard and placed the legal age at twelve years. But 
unless some such wrong is practised the people may 
worship as they desire. 

Let us briefly glance at some of the benefits con- 
ferred on the people by British rule. 

25 



26 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

1. Justice. In courts of law even-handed justice is 
meted out as far as possible. Now, I do not mean to 
say that all the people secure justice in the courts. If 
they did, many a man who is at liberty now would be 
behind prison-bars. I heard the superintendent of jails 
in Midnapore say that " the people of India were 
divided into two classes — those who were in jails and 
those who ought to be." Of course he was a pessi- 
mist; for all the people of India ought not to be in jail. 
Some should be there who are not, and some are there 
who ought never to have gone there. The great trou- 
ble is to get at the truth in a case, but when truth 
can be ascertained by an English judge or magistrate, 
he judges according to the principles of justice, let it 
hit whom it will. This the Indian people well know, 
and this is what the higher class of people do not 
like. This is something which has never been in their 
land before. They say, " How is it possible that I, a 
Brahmin, should be subjected to the same laws as a 
Sudra?" It is this equality in the eyes of the law 
that the high-caste people would gladly change. 

The same thing is true on the railways. If a Brah- 
min and Sudra pay the same fare they go into the same 
compartment. The Brahmin's head is high, and the 
poor Sudra begs many pardons for being forced into 
the same compartment, but objections are useless on 
the part of either. And each is finding that no great 
harm comes to them. 

2. Famines. Some of the Indian newspapers try 
to hold the government responsible for the famines. 
The lack of rain is the cause of famines, and not even 



British Rule in India 27 

an English government can control the rainfall, but 
some seem to think it can. But the government does a 
great many things which tend to mitigate the evil, and 
even in many cases to avert the evil. Formerly great 
famines devastated the country in places, and the rulers 
did nothing. They simply said it was their fate and 
they accepted it, and the people lay down and died by 
thousands. Under British rule there are thousands of 
miles of irrigation canals built, and thirty-two million 
acres are irrigated when necessary. If drought visits 
that part of the country which has no irrigation works 
and famine follows, the government institutes relief 
works, and in many cases actually feeds those who are 
too feeble to work. I could give chapters from my 
own experience along both of these lines of relief. 

3. Schools. While it is true that there is no sys- 
tem of public common schools in India, it is also true 
that the government is doing much to help the people 
to an education. Formerly all education was confined 
to the highest classes, these claiming that lower-caste 
people had no right to an education. The missionaries 
began to educate all classes, and the government has 
boldly seconded their efforts, and the efforts of any 
Indian gentleman who has enough of public spirit and 
interest in education or philanthropy to try and es- 
tablish a school. 

There are technical schools assisted and some en- 
tirely supported by the government. There are also 
normal-training schools, and colleges, and universities 
which are almost wholly supported by the government. 

It has been my privilege to be connected with schools 



28 India and Daily Life in Bengal 



in various ways and with different kinds of schools, 
and in furnishing schools and even building school- 
houses, and in all my work along this line I have found 
the government most considerate and helpful. If the 
government sees a disposition on the part of any one 
to promote education, it is ahvays ready to do its share. 
There are officers employed and appointed by the gov- 
ernment, from inspecting pundits up to inspector of 
schools, all of which are under the Department of 
Public Instruction, to see that the work is well done. 
And the people are beginning to feel the need of an 
education, and are gradually advancing along this line. 

4. Hospitals. I believe I am safe in saying that 
there is no country in the world which has made such 
provisions for people who are ill from various dis- 
eases as India. All up and down the great trunk roads, 
for thousands of miles here and there, are free dis- 
pensaries and hospitals for the use of suffering travel- 
ers. In the large cities there are splendid hospitals 
on a large scale, many of which are absolutely free if 
you wish to enter a free ward. There are eye and ear 
infirmaries, where thousands are treated every year 
free of cost. We have sent a number of our native 
Christians to these for surgical operations, and all 
absolutely free. In one case where the girl had to have 
an operation for hair-lip, they gave her a set of false 
teeth. 

I do not say that all persons who come to these dis- 
pensaries are treated free, or that their wants are at 
once supplied. Many of these are in the hands of 
native doctors, necessarily, and their hands itch for 



British Rule in India 29 

money. If a little is not forthcoming the patient may 
wait a long time. But this is no fault of the govern- 
ment. 

5. Thugism. The Thugs were a caste of men who 
robbed and murdered unsuspecting travelers. Before 
starting out on their wicked errand, they would make 
an offering to the god Kali, and then their victims 
would be religiously murdered. During the hot months 
travelers often start on their journeys at three in the 
morning. These Thugs would join a company of 
travelers and allure one to the rear, and then throw a 
cloth around his neck and strangle him instantly and 
take his money, and the rest would know nothing about 
it. This has been wholly suppressed. 

6. Telegraph lines. All the cities and more impor- 
tant towns, and even smaller towns all over the coun- 
try, are connected by telegraph lines, and the rate is 
very low indeed. These are not owned by syndicates 
who fatten from the profits, but are owned by the gov- 
ernment, and though the rates are so low they return a 
fair revenue to the country. 

7. Postal department. Letter postage is but a cent 
a letter, and all other postal matter is in proportion. 
Parcel post universally prevails, and even sending by 
value-payable post is most common. By this latter 
method a person can send to a merchant and have an 
article sent, and the man who delivers the mail will 
collect the value, and for a small consideration the de- 
partment returns the amount to the sender. 

In every town of any size there is a postal savings- 
bank. Here the depositor gets three per cent on his 



30 India and Daily Life in Bengal 



money, and it is as safe as the government. In this 
way small sums are saved which would not be other- 
wise. It is surely a great blessing to the man who 
earns but a small salary, and also to any person who 
has no money to lose by the breaking of banks. 

This chapter could be lengthened into a book if I 
should write of human sacrifices, suttee, female in- 
fanticide, and barbarous punishment of criminals sup- 
pressed, and of the many other things which were in 
common practice before the English took over the 
country. 

I am sure no disinterested person who is acquainted 
with conditions in India, will say that British rule 
is not for the good of the great mass of the common 
people. It is sometimes necessary to antagonize the 
classes for the good of the masses. A case in point 
will be the Bengal Tenancy Act. For ages it has been 
the habit of zemindars (landlords) to rent their land 
for so much per bega, or let it on shares. If there were 
a pilgrimage to make, or if there were a marriage in 
the landlord's family — which is a very expensive af- 
fair, or if there were a death — which is also attended 
with expense, the zemindar would simply figure up how 
much each acre of land 'must be assessed to pay the bills, 
and the tenants had it to pay. This act was to put a 
stop to such extortion. Under the old rule, if a tenant 
refused to pay these extra assessments he was simply 
dispossessed of his land. This act was to provide that 
not only could the landlord not levy these assessments, 
but that he could not dispossess the tenant if he had 
paid his rent for twelve successive years, and so long as 



British Rule in India 31 



he continued to pay his rent. I happened to be in Cal- 
cutta on the eve of the passage of that bill, and there 
was a great demonstration on the part of the landlords 
against its passage. But the bill passed, and so secured 
the poor tenants a degree of help. But there are many 
ways in which the wily landlord evades the law, as I 
know from experience. 

It is sometimes urged that there is no sympathy be- 
tween the English officials and the natives, and that 
the English are autocratic to a most unpleasant degree. 
In cases this may be true, but so far as my observation 
goes it is not true of the higher officials. Where such 
lack of sympathy exists on the part of the English, it 
is more with clerks and non-officials. Still, the culti- 
vation of more sympathy is greatly to be desired on 
both sides. But while speaking of lack of sympathy, 
we must not forget that the Indian carries his caste 
prejudices with him everywhere. He refuses to sit 
at the table with the highest official. It may be urged 
that this is on account of his religion. That may be 
true, but whatever it may be which places one man so 
much above another that he cannot eat at the same 
table without becoming unclean, naturally creates a 
gulf between them. To this question of lack of sym- 
pathy there are therefore two sides. 

It is also claimed that the native Indians do not 
have enough voice in the government of their own 
country. For my own part, I never saw much force to 
this argument, though it has been used by native gen- 
tlemen to good effect, and also by Englishmen in Eng- 
land when there was some end to be gained. Every 



32 India and Daily Life in Bengal 



office up to commissioner is open to the Indian who 
can pass the civil-service test. I grant you that these 
are severe tests. The whole man is taken into the ac- 
count. His physical, intellectual, and moral attain- 
ments are carefully considered. The examination pa- 
pers look very like the curriculum of a well-ordered 
college, but the tests are the same for all. 

To show what the real situation is with respect to 
British rule, and what it would be if ruled by a native 
king, let me quote a few words from among the many 
from the '' Indian Social Reformer." In reading this 
short paragraph, please remember that nearly half of 
India is ruled by native kings. This is what he says : 
" There is no native State whose subjects do not cast 
an envious eye on their brethren across the border 
which divides it from British territory. Even the 
most disaffected Indian carries his head somewhat high 
among his compatriots of the States because of his 
British citizenship. Educated men, unless employed 
in the service of the States, find the atmosphere cramp- 
ing and uncongenial, and are glad to settle down in 
British India." 

I am not writing a book on British rule in India. I 
am trying to say what I have to say in the fewest pos- 
sible words, but I cannot refrain from saying a word 
with reference to the partition of Bengal, for this has 
been assigned as one of the causes of the unrest. Lord 
Curzon while viceroy thought it would be for the 
best interests of the country to have the large province 
of Bengal divided, taking the eastern portion and 
uniting it to Assam, making a sixth province of 



British Rule in India 33 

eastern Bengal and Assam. None but the purest motive 
can be assigned for this act. He simply thought the 
interests of the people could be better looked after than 
they could be by having the province of Bengal so 
large. The Bengalese of Calcutta were up in arms, 
and could not say bitter things enough against the 
viceroy and his council. Probably the greatest demon- 
stration ever seen in Calcutta was on the day previous 
to the passing of the bill. Many thoughtful persons 
feared a scene similar to the destruction of the Bastile 
in Paris. It might have been better to let the par- 
tition of the province remain over for some future 
statesman instead of adding fuel to the fire already 
smoldering, but he did the thing which no doubt was 
for the best interests of the country, and the future will 
demonstrate it. 



CHAPTER III 
Political Divisions and How the Country is Governed 

INDIA may be said to be divided politically into 
five divisions: (i) The Portuguese have two or 
three possessions; (2) the French have a portion, 
and a little more than the Portuguese; (3) there 
are two independent States in the northern part, Ne- 
paul and Bhutan; (4) there are one hundred and sixty 
native protected States, which embrace one-third of 
all the territory of India. These are ruled by native 
kings, who have with them, usually at their capital, a 
British resident. The work of the latter is to look 
after British interests, and to advise with the king on 
all important subjects. (5) There are six provinces 
directly under British rule, which embrace the most 
fertile parts of India. These provinces are the Punjab, 
United Provinces, Bombay, Madras, Bengal, and 
Eastern Bengal and Assam. It was under Lord Cur- 
zon that the latter province was created by taking the 
eastern portion of Bengal and uniting it with Assam, 
which formerly had been ruled by a commissioner. It 
was this act of Lord Curzon which made him unpopu- 
lar with the natives, and gave them an occasion to raise 
a great outcry against British rule in India. 

The Punjab has a lieutenant-governor as the high- 
est resident official. This is also true of the United 
Provinces. Bengal has a lieutenant-governor and a 
34 



Political Divisions 35 

legislative council. Madras has a governor and two 
councils, which is also true of the Bombay Presidency. 
Eastern Bengal and Assam has also a lieutenant-gov- 
ernor. Aside from these six principal divisions, cer- 
tain provinces are governed by chief commissioners, as 
are also the Central Provinces — Berar, Ajmir, and 
Coorg. Below governors, lieutenant-governors, and 
chief commissioners, are commissioners. Provinces 
are divided into districts, and these commissioners 
have supervision over a certain number of districts; 
e. g., Bengal contained before the division one hundred 
and sixty thousand square miles, and had seventy mil- 
lion people. There were forty-five districts in this 
province and nine commissioners, giving to each an 
average of five districts, though all do not have the 
same extent of territory. The commissioner exercises 
supervision over the magistrate and collector, and 
periodically inspects their offices. At the head of each 
district is a magistrate and collector, who is virtually 
king under certain restrictions. A district of the aver- 
age size in Bengal is thirty-six hundred square miles, 
nearly as large as the State of Connecticut, and con- 
tains more than twice as many people as there are in 
Connecticut. Districts vary in size. Midnapore has a 
population of two and one-half million ; Balasore has a 
population of one million. 

The duties of the magistrate and collector are va- 
rious. He is supposed to exercise a paternal care over 
the people. He must travel throughout his district 
ninety days each year, to find out just what is needed. 
He must look over the roads, visit the hospitals and 



36 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

schools, examine the crops, see if sanitation is ob- 
served, provide suppHes of rice and drinking water 
if there is a failure, look after the settlement or re- 
measurement of lands, which takes place once in twenty 
years, sometimes settle disputes between large land- 
holders, receive distinguished visitors, inspect liquor, 
and opium, and gunja shops, etc., etc. He is also 
chairman of the District Board, and must sign nearly 
every document. He has many cases to decide in court, 
and sometimes acts as an arbitrator. 

Districts are subdivided. In Bengal, for example, 
before the division there were eighty-one subdivisions. 
At the head of each of these is a deputy magistrate and 
collector, called also a subdivisional officer. He is sub- 
ject to the magistrate-collector, and refers matters to 
him when necessary. These are again subdivided into 
what are called thannahs. The thannah is the unit in 
the governmental and political arrangement. The 
whole arrangement is a wheel within a wheel, and yet 
the clock runs well and keeps good time. 

In each district there is a kutchery (courthouse) 
town. In this town the officers of the district usually 
reside, and here is where the treasury is found. Here 
are many lawyers, and here is where the people come 
to settle their grievances. In an ordinary kutchery 
town one will usually find these officers : ( i ) Magis- 
trate and collector ; (2) civil surgeon. This officer gets 
a fixed salary to attend to the bodily ailments of the 
civil servants of the government. He is at liberty to 
have also an outside practice. (3) Superintendent of 
public works. This officer has general supervision of 



Political Divisions 37 

canals, roads, and public buildings. (4) Superintend- 
ent of police. His duties are to inspect the different 
police stations and keep the police department in run- 
ning order as nearly as possible. If the district is a 
large one, there are also likely to be some officers in the 
judicial line, as a judge and a joint magistrate. There 
may be also a superintendent of jails. As a rule these 
officials are friendly to missionaries, and invite them 
occasionally to dine with them. 

The officials mentioned are what are called " society 
people," and missionaries are regarded as being on a 
social equality with them. The wives of these officials 
may also be in the town, but it is more than probable 
that some, if not all of them, are in England. All of 
these offices may be filled by natives, and usually some 
natives are found filling them. Aside from these society 
people, there are some lower-caste people filling minor 
positions, as in the post-office and telegraph office. 
Quite often these are filled by Eurasians,^ and some- 
times by natives. There is also belonging to this class 
a district engineer, a police inspector, a deputy in- 
spector of schools, and one or more salt inspectors. 
Every officer gets a mileage for traveling ; so many of 
this latter class, who spend much of their time in 
going from place to place through their district, add 
largely to their income. Indeed, it is their duty to 
do this kind of work, so they are seldom found in the 
stations. 

Almost every night of the year the Europeans in 
government service meet together, either at the club- 

1 Part European and part Asiatic. 



38 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

house or in some private house. The time before dark 
is spent in tennis and conversation, and after dark 
with music and often dancing. Most Englishmen think 
" pegging " a necessity, and many indulge to excess. 
One of the saddest sights to be seen in India is so 
many fine-looking young Englishmen going down to 
premature graves through drink. This last remark 
has no relation to the government of India, and yet 
is true with respect to many government officials. It 
is a matter for profound thankfulness that '* pegging " 
among the higher officials is not, however, so frequent 
as it was twenty years ago. 

Another officer who is always to be found in a 
kutchery town is a munsiff. He is in the judicial line, 
and tries cases of a civil nature. The Hindus are very 
fond of going to law, and therefore this officer is a 
hard-worked man. His courtroom is open every day 
in the year, except on legal holidays, and he seldom or 
never gets his cases all off the docket. There are also 
officers who look after the revenue. The collector is 
at the head of this department, and he has with him 
quite a staff as inspectors and clerks. 

Perhaps there will be no better place than this to 
make a few remarks upon this question. The revenue 
of India is $370,518,000^: Land revenue, $105,- 
460,000; opium, $27,611,500; salt, $16,533,000; 
stamps, $22,757,500; excise, $32,681,000; customs, 
$24,343,500; railways, $62,454,000; other heads, $78,- 
677.500; total, $370,518,000. Certainly no missionary 

9 These following are tht sources of revenue, and these figures are tftk«D from the 
latest official report, 1909-1910. 



Political Divisions 39 

could apologize for the opium and liquor trade, and 
yet it will be seen that the revenue from both of 
these sources is much smaller than the revenue from 
the railways, and not one-half of what the revenue is 
from land taxes. It cannot, therefore, be said that 
India derives a large part of her revenue from opium 
and liquor. 

It is gratifying to note that the revenue from opium 
is ten millions of dollars less than it was twenty years 
ago, and that the Indian government has entered into 
an agreement with China to curtail gradually the ex- 
portation of the drug to China, if it sees that China is 
making an honest effort to stop the growing of the 
poppy. The tax on salt is less than half of what it 
was twenty years ago, while the revenue from the sale 
of stamps and also from railways has greatly in- 
creased. The unspecified heads in the table consist of 
revenues from income tax, forests, post-office, tele- 
graph, and an ad valorum duty of five per cent on 
imports, ferries, pounds, license for carrying firearms, 
etc. Some may be curious to know how salt is taxed. 
It is simply in this way : For every pound of salt 
which is imported from England, mined in the coun- 
try, or evaporated from sea water, the government 
requires a certain revenue. There are many places in 
Orissa where salt water oozes up from the ground 
and is evaporated by the sun, leaving deposits of salt. 
It is the duty of the salt inspectors to see that none of 
this salt is gathered by the poor people, and to see 
that no sea water is evaporated unlawfully. The 
revenue from liquor and opium consumed by the 



40 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

people of India amounts to nearly forty million dol- 
lars annually. The policy of the government in fos- 
tering these industries, if we may call them industries, 
is to increase the sale rather than to diminish it. If 
the government would put her machinery as vigor- 
ously at work to repress these evils as it does to pro- 
hibit the illicit making of salt, no doubt drinking and 
opium eating could well-nigh be abolished. 

What I have said so far about the government of 
the country does not cover all the ground. At the 
head of all this complicated machinery of government 
is the viceroy. This officer was called a governor- 
general under the East India Company. He is ap- 
pointed by the King of England as his representative ; 
and he, with his council, is the highest legislative power 
in India. His council has two departments — execu- 
tive and legislative. Formerly there were six mem- 
bers in the former and in the latter from twelve to 
eighteen. Under Lord Morley, the late secretary of 
State for India, the legislative council was greatly en- 
larged. Since this was such a burning question in 
India, and occupied the attention of the statesmen of 
England for nearly two years, I will give in detail the 
constitution of this body. 

Those who are deeply interested in Indian affairs 
will be interested in this reform. It was considered 
one of the great advance movements of the century in 
the Oriental world. 

I copy from the official report : 

The legislative council of the governor-general shall or- 
dinarily consist of sixty members, of whom the number of 



Political Divisions 41 



elected members shall not be less than twenty-five, and that 
of members nominated by the governor-general shall not 
exceed thirty-five. Of the thirty-five nominated members 
not more than twenty-eight may be officials, and there shall 
be selected non-official persons, of whom one shall represent 
the Indian commercial community, one shall be from the 
Mohammedan community in the Punjab, and one from the 
landholders in the Punjab. 

The twenty-five elected members shall be elected as fol- 
lows: 

By the non-ofificial additional members of the council of 
the governor of Fort St. George (Madras), two members. 

From the same class of the governor of the Council of 
Bombay, two members. 

From the same class of the council of the lieutenant-gov- 
ernor of Bengal, two members. 

By the non-official members of the council of the lieutenant- 
governor of the united provinces of Agra and Oudh, two 
members. 

By the non-official members of the council of the lieuten- 
ant-governor of the Punjab, one member. 

By the non-official members of the council of the lieuten- 
ant-governor of Eastern Bengal and Assam, one member. 

By the non-official members of the council of the lieuten- 
ant-governor of Burma, one member. 

By the district councils and municipal committees in the 
Central Provinces, one member. 

By landholders in the presidency of Fort St. George 
(Madras), one member. 

By landholders in the presidency of Bombay, one member. 

By landholders in Bengal, one member. 

By landholders in the united provinces of Agra and Oudh, 
one member. 

By landholders in Eastern Bengal and Assam, one mem- 
ber. 

By landholders in the Central Provinces, one member. 

By the Mohammedan community in the presidency of 
Fort St. George (Madras), one member. 

By the Mohammedan community in the presidency of 
Bombay, one member. 



42 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

By the Mohammedan community in Bengal, one member. 

By the Mohammedan community of the united provinces 
of Agra and Oudh, one member. 

By the Mohammedan community of Eastern Bengal and 
Assam, one member. 

'By the Bengal Chamber of Commerce, one member. 

It is seen from the foregoing constitution of the 
viceroy's legislative council, that great pains has been 
taken to have all communities represented. 

The viceroy's executive council is composed of five 
members, of whom three shall be servants of the crown 
of not less than ten years' standing. Of the remaining 
two, one shall be a barrister, or a member of the 
faculty of Advocates of Scotland of not less than five 
years' standing. The commander-in-chief of his maj- 
esty's forces in India can also be appointed as an ex- 
traordinary member of the council, and is generally so 
appointed. 

The viceroy is usually a nobleman, and is generally 
a fair-minded and capable man. His winter home is 
in Calcutta, and his summer home in Simla, a beauti- 
ful hill station north — up in the Himalaya Mountains. 
It is an event in Calcutta when the viceroy and his 
retinue return there, about December i ; and it is also 
an event in Simla when they arrive there early in the 
spring. He is a well-paid officer, and has the satisfac- 
tion of living in the finest climate in the world the 
year through. But his responsibilities are great; for 
in a measure the interests of three hundred million 
people are committed to him. He must be a man of 
great diplomatic ability, for there are wars of greater 



Political Divisions 43 

or less magnitude a good deal of the time, and con- 
quered States or countries must be reconstructed. 

In his winter tours he must meet many of the kings 
of the protected States. In their great durbars, or 
public assemblies, he must listen to their speeches and 
requests, and reply so as not to give offense nor in 
any way commit himself if he does not choose to. He 
is open to the attacks of the native press, and these are 
often very virulent, for the freedom of the native press 
is run wild in India. More or less, he must give public 
receptions, and these must comport with his standing. 

Through the courtesy of Gen. Samuel Merrill, who 
was United States consul-general in Calcutta during 
part of the time we were there, Mrs. Griffin and I had 
an invitation to one of these receptions, it happening 
when we were in Calcutta on the eve of our first re- 
turn to America. The occasion was the visit of the 
Grand Duke of Austria. It was a very imposing af- 
fair. Native kings were there, clothed in garments 
literally covered with gold embroidery and precious 
stones ; army officers, with bright epaulets ; High-church 
officials, with their flowing robes and cardinal caps; 
and hundreds of Calcutta's best society people. The 
splendor and glitter were quite dazzling to our uniniti- 
ated eyes. How very weary Lord and Lady Lans- 
downe were, and how we pitied them ! We went away 
feeling that, after all, we would rather be simply mis- 
sionaries to the people, trying by teaching to lift them 
up, than to be the viceroy of India, who may have the 
same end in view, but must attain it through such 
wearisome and conventional methods. 



44 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

The crown also appoints a secretary of State for 
India, a member of the Enghsh cabinet, who has as- 
sociated with him a council of fifteen members. These 
may annul the acts of the viceroy, or inaugurate new 
measures for the benefit of the Indian people. As a 
rule, harmony prevails between the viceroy and the 
secretary of State. The latter with his council re- 
mains in London. So much for the mere outline of 
the machinery of government as far as we have gone. 
The question of schools and government relation to 
them will be spoken of later on. 

This question is frequently asked me : *' Are the 
people well governed? and are they contented under 
English rule? " I confess I went to India prejudiced 
against English rule there. I said : " The English are 
there because they have the might, rather than the 
right ; and they oppress the people so that they may fat- 
ten on the spoils." But I have changed my mind. The 
people are far better governed than they could govern 
themselves. If their government were in the hands of 
native rulers there would be little security for justice, 
life, or property. For two thousand years, under na- 
tive rule, that was about the condition of things; and 
native character is no better now than it has been in 
the past — at least it is not enough better to insure any- 
thing like good government. All innocent natives to 
this day much prefer being tried by an English official ; 
for they expect justice so far as an English judge can 
find out what justice is in the midst of so much conflict- 
ing evidence. It is true that many of the natives are 
poor, very poor; but they are as prosperous and con- 



Political Divisions 45 

tented as it is possible for them to be with their igno- 
rance, superstition, habits of Hfe, rehgion, and the land 
rent which must be paid to the landholders and to the 
government.^ 

There has been a start made toward self-government 
in the organization of district Boards, These are 
analogous to our State legislatures, with, of course, 
many more limitations. These Boards levy the rate of 
assessment, appropriate money for roads and schools, 
care for the pounds and ferries, and many other things 
of a similar nature. But as a body for lawmaking, or 
as one having authority of the internal affairs of the 
district, it is little more than a farce, as I can bear wit- 
ness after having been a member of one for seven 
years. It is a very good thing, perhaps, in the way of 
an educator, and at times as the source of information 
to the magistrate, who is also chairman of the Board; 
but it has no independent voice if the chairman does 
not agree. His wish is the law. 

s The one criticism upon British administration in India is the enormous salaries 
of officials and the method of raising part of this revenue, especially that part raised 
by the sale of liquor, opium, and gunjr.. The viceroy of India gets $100,000 a year ; 
the governors of Madras and Bombay, each $50,000; the three lieutenant-governors, 
$45,000 each ; members of the executive council of the viceroy, $35,000 each; judges 
of the high court, from $25,000 to $30,000 ; members of the civil service, as high as 
$20,000 ; military officers, from $2,000 to $10,000 ; medical officers, from $3,000 to 
$12,000. When we remember that there are various other departments, as forest, 
schools, salt, river and harbor, railroad, telegraph, public works, marine, ecclesiasti- 
cal, etc., and that proportionably well-paid officers are in all of them, we see the 
criticism is a just one. Though English officials do receive enormous salaries in India, 
the oppression of the land tenants is not so great where British rule prevails as where 
native rule prevails. 



CHAPTER IV 

Unrest in India 

I WAS in India when the first Indian National Con- 
gress was organized in 1885. Its sitting was in 
Bombay. The meetings then as now were con- 
ducted in Enghsh, it being the only language 
which all the educated people from the different parts 
of this great country could understand. There was 
then as now no test of membership, except that the 
members should be in sympathy with the aims of the 
congress. Then as now there was no system of elect- 
ing delegates, but every person who wished to attend 
and bear his own expenses was permitted to enroll 
himself as a delegate. I was in sympathy with the 
movement, for I thought it might go a long way to- 
ward unifying the diverse people of the land, and 
might result in bringing to the front the real cause of 
India's present condition. I was of the opinion then, 
and the years have only intensified that opinion, that 
India's greatest need was reform along social lines. 
There were some of the most thoughtful men of In- 
dia who were of the same opinion, and a Social Con- 
gress was attempted along with the National Congress. 
But the National Congress, which was purely political, 
so absorbed the attention of the greater part of the 
members, that all other issues were largely lost sight 
of in the loud clamor for political rights. 
46 



Unrest in India 47 



The congress is divided into two parties known as 
" Moderates " and " Extremists." The object of both 
parties is to criticize government, the one in a moder- 
ate way and the other in a most rank, seditious way. 

The Indian gentlemen who support the govern- 
ment have no place in the National Congress. The 
Moderates say we want absolute independence, but 
we want to bring it about in a lawful and constitutional 
w^ay; while the Extremists say we will bring it about 
by rebellion and revolution if necessary. 

The very cry heard on so many public occasions 
where this class of people are assembled, '^ Bande 
Mataram," is very suggestive, and calculated to stir 
up the worst passions of men. " Bande Mataram " 
was the title of a song composed some years ago by 
B. C. Chatterje, a Bengali gentleman, in a historical 
novel, and was sung by certain fakirs when attacking 
British troops, and always insured victory. It is easy 
to see wdiat effect such a war cry would have on an 
excited multitude. It is really a salutation to Mother 
Kali, the goddess of cruelty. 

This unrest is not confined to any one place, but 
seems to be prevalent all over India among a certain 
class. The causes are not what the leaders of the 
Indian National Congress would have the people 
think. It is not that the great mass of the Indian peo- 
ple are suffering wrongs imposed by the government. 
They have great and terrible burdens, but they are 
not so great as under either Hindu or Mohammedan 
rule, and they are not burdens which the British or any 
other government could remove. They are more of 

D 



48 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

a social nature, and such as their priests and landlords 
impose. If I quote the words of R. C. Dutt, it will 
have more weight than any opinion of my own, for 
he was at one time president of the National Congress, 
and was for many years in the India Civil Service, and 
is a native of Bengal and a scholar, historian, and poet. 
He says : '' Without an iota of education, or public 
spirit, or desire to do good to the people, the typical vil- 
lage zemindar (landlord) considers it the aim and ob- 
ject of life to extort the last penny from the impover- 
ished ryot (tenant)." Again he says: "Poor Ben- 
gal ryot! Hope for relief from a handful of alien 
rulers of the country, but from thine own country- 
men — never ! " 

Some would have us think that this unrest is wide- 
spread and all but universal. It is safe to say that 
nine out of every ten of the people of the land know 
nothing about the National Congress. Never heard 
the word! Not one in a hundred is dissatisfied with 
their rulers, and not one in a thousand is among the 
agitators. Among the more prominent of the latter 
are Surendra Nath Banerje and Bepin Chandra Pal in 
Bengal. Mr. Benerje is a fine orator, and was at one 
time connected with the India Civil Service, but is now 
most hostile. Lala Rajput Rai and Ajit Singh, in 
northern India, were most revolutionary in their agita- 
tion and were recently transported, but afterward par- 
doned. Sir Henry Cotton, an M. P. in England, who 
was once commissioner of Assam, and is even now I 
believe drawing a handsome pension from the Indian 
government, is doing much to foster in the minds of 



Unrest in India 49 



these agitators a spirit of rebellion. Keir Hardie, a 
Labor member of Parliament, recently made a visit to 
India, and has probably done more than any other one 
man to encourage these agitators. He was lionized by 
the leaders of the National Congress, and it is said with 
them shouted '' Bande Mataram " ! William Jennings 
Bryan, who recently visited India, criticized adversely 
British rule in India, which added fuel to the fire. 

It is impossible to find out just what the people who 
clamor are clamoring about. Bepin Chundra Pal says 
in his paper, " We want to be absolutely free from 
British control " ; while others say, '' The people do not 
have a voice in the affairs of the government as do the 
people of other British colonies." But this is a decla- 
ration more to catch the public ear and create sentiment 
than to state a fact. These agitators do not want a 
government of the people, by the people, and for the 
people. Sir Henry Cotton himself said : *' The basis 
of internal order in India is a patrician aristocracy of 
indigenous growth to control and lead the lower 
classes." 

Would a '' patrician aristocracy " control and lead 
the people in the interests of the people as well as they 
are controlled now? The words quoted above by Mr. 
Dutt might answer the question. Every man with a 
knowledge of India and its people would unhesitat- 
ingly say no. Would the constituency of Keir Hardie 
shout for this patrician aristocracy? Did Keir Hardie 
know he was standing for principles, in India, when he 
shouted '' Bande Mataram," which he denounces in 
England ? Did Mr. Bryan know he was advocating a 



50 India and Daily Life in Bengal 



patrician aristocracy when he denounced British rule 
in India ? Yet this is what these agitators want in the 
end. It would still be the few governing the masses, 
and they would rule them with an iron hand for their 
own selfish ends. 

Everybody who is acquainted with Indian affairs 
knows of the disgraceful row which broke up the In- 
dian National Congress at Surat. If these men could 
not with decorum conduct a congress of this kind, how 
could they govern a nation ? 

In matters of justice it has seemed to me, as an 
impartial observer, that the courts dealt more severely 
with a European offender than with a native for the 
same offense. It is rare for a European to escape if 
he commits a crime, while the records of the police 
show that not one in a hundred of the natives who 
commit murder are ever punished. 

Recently an act has been passed by the viceroy's 
council making it a crime to publish seditious waitings 
or to make seditious speeches. The freedom of the 
press and of speech was a thing unknown in India 
until English rule permitted it. Even now in the native 
States there is no such thing as freedom of the press, 
but in those parts of India under British rule the press 
has been until now absolutely unrestricted, and they 
have taken this freedom to mean license. The most 
seditious and revolutionary utterances have been sent 
broadcast over the land. Every officer, from the vice- 
roy down, has been more or less a subject for vilifica- 
tion. There is not a civilized country on the face of 
the earth where such language with reference to the 









• ^.^r'S 



'T**.^ rt*;.»v* 




>.^" 



^ Bengal rural village 




A Bengal haaaar (business street) 



Unrest in India 5) 



government and its officers could have been used and 
the offenders go unpunished. These seditious utter- 
ances have been at the bottom of all riots and murders. 
The man who threw the bomb at Muzefferpore, killing 
two English ladies, has been hanged, and a true bill 
has been found against thirty-four other anarchists in 
Calcutta, all growing out of these seditious writings. 

I have talked with a number of educated and influ- 
ential Indian men in different parts of the country, and 
with very few exceptions they deplore the agitation. 
The great trouble has been that those who were satis- 
fied with present conditions have kept quiet, while the 
dissatisfied ones have made a great deal of noise, and 
they did it so long without any protest that they came 
to think that the whole country was with them. 

The agitators themselves have a very wrong concep- 
tion as to the benefits they hope to derive from inde- 
pendence. The fact is, there are but few thoughtful 
men among the agitators. Many of them are young 
men of irresponsible positions. If I give the gist of a 
conversation between two of these gentlemen and my- 
self it may fairly represent the dominant thought. 
These were well-educated men and used English per- 
fectly. They were around in a quiet way stirring up 
seditious sentiment in the Hindu villages. Knowing 
that I was in sympathy with the people of the coun- 
try, for I was there for only their good, they came to 
me and wanted to speak in our church. They began by 
complimenting me on being an American. A " citizen 
of a free country." I said: " Yes, it is a free country 
in a way. If one does wrong he is punished there the 



52 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

same as here. We must pay our taxes in America the 
same as in India, and if we do not the government will 
seize and sell our land. If we violate laws we will be 
taken before courts there the same as here. In fact," 
I said, " I do not see but you are about as free as we 
are. Your life and property are safely guarded here. 
If you obey the laws of the land there is none to molest 
you." Then I said, " Suppose you were free as you 
wish to be, how would you govern yourselves? " 

" We would appoint Surendra Nath Banerje as our 
king." 

I told them that he would be the choice in Bengal, 
but down in Madras it would be some one else, and over 
in Bombay some one else, and up in the Punjab still 
another, and so it would be in all the six provinces of 
the country. And then these kings would soon quarrel, 
and then there would be wars between them. This had 
been their history all through the centuries of the past. 
Then I pointed out to them, that if they had a king in 
Bengal they could not run a government, because they 
were all divided up into hundreds of social grades, and 
there was no mutual trustfulness nor any community 
of interest. Then there were often bitter feuds between 
the Hindus and Mohammedans, and the British sol- 
diers sometimes had to step in to prevent great riots. 
I cannot say that they were converted, but I gave them 
permission to speak in the church and not a word was 
spoken about political freedom. 

Besides the educated and influential men who are in 
sympathy with the government, there is another class 
of intelligent men who have never come in contact with 



Unrest in India 53 



Western thought. These are men in remote Hindu vil- 
lages, who are leaders of their people. I have never 
talked with one of these men who did not think that 
it would be a calamity for the British to withdraw from 
India. It is by no means a general unrest. 



CHAPTER V 
European Life in Bengal 

BROADLY speaking, Europeans in India may 
be divided into two classes, viz., '' society peo- 
ple " and those not in " society." The require- 
ments which admit one into society are va- 
rious. Blood has something to do with it. If an in- 
dividual is of a certain standing in the mother country, 
i. e., if he belongs to the " gentlemen " class, however 
low down he may commence in India in the service, 
he is still in society. On the other hand, if he is made 
of more common clay he must work up to a certain 
salary before he is admitted. One of our neighbors in 
Balasore, in the public works department, toiled on 
through the various grades, but had nothing to do 
with society people in a social way. He had a beauti- 
ful wife and a nice family, but in their evening drives 
and in their calls they in no way mixed with people 
outside their class. By and by, through strict attention 
to business, he was promoted until his salary touched 
the charmed number. This was the '' sesame " which 
opened the door, and henceforth the privileges of the 
select few were his to enjoy. By some rule, which I 
never quite understood, missionaries are " in society." 
As such, they are entitled to all the privileges of 
society, as also must they share its burdens. What 
these are we will consider farther on. 
54 



European Life in Bengal 55 

To begin with, let us look at the life of the non- 
society people. And here too are various grades and 
such social distinctions that they can hardly be spoken 
of as a whole except that they are all out of society. 

The greater number of these non-society people are 
'' Eurasians." This is a word meaning part Euro- 
pean and part Asiatic ; i. e., those in whose veins flows 
the blood of these two races of people. And here too, 
there may be various degrees. I have seen Eurasians 
who wore the white coat and pantaloons and black 
felt hat, or sola topic — a dress which distinguishes 
them from pure natives, darker than many natives, 
and in fact as dark as any native. But a sixteenth or 
a thirty-second part of European blood brings them 
out of the native class and puts them with Eurasians, 
and they are classed, broadly speaking, as European. 
Many of these are as low in the social and mqral scale 
as it is possible to be. Some of them live as poorly as 
the poorest of the natives. They are an unfortunate 
class as a whole, and are one of the problems for the 
philanthropist and social reformer. Many of them 
have but a taint of native blood, and are highly re- 
spectable and useful members of society. Some who 
are half or even more native are good people and in- 
telligent, and occupy useful and responsible positions 
both in the government service, in mission work, and 
in business. In communities where a considerable 
number are found they have their own society. They 
meet for tennis and dinners, and in a general way ape 
society people. There are some outside society of 
pure European blood who freely associate with the 



56 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

better class of Eurasians. I have also seen Eurasians 
in society, though but seldom. 

If the Eurasians are educated and receive a govern- 
ment or some other appointment, they are fortunate, 
indeed, for a competency is secured to them. If not, 
they are most unfortunate, for they cannot compete 
with the native in muscular labor. 

Society people are the other class. This class pre- 
sents a brighter picture, for in no country in the world 
will we find more refinement and greater luxury than 
we find in India among society people. As with non- 
society people there are many grades, so with society 
people there are great distinctions as to wealth and at- 
tainments and mode of living. 

In the chapter " How India is Governed," I told of 
some of the different officers and of their work, salary, 
style of living, etc. Let us now, for the time-being, 
forget any distinctions there may be in the grades and 
see them as a whole in their social and domestic life. 
I shall make no attempt to describe European life in 
Calcutta. In the first place, I am not sufficiently ac- 
quainted with it ; and, in the next place, if I should tell 
all I could, more space would be taken than the limits 
of this chapter will allow. I do not think that Cal- 
cutta life is really typical. 

Let us take either of the two cities in which we lived, 
Midnapore or Balasore. Both of these are " sta- 
tions," and are fairly representative. Here are a 
judge, a collector and magistrate, a civil surgeon, su- 
perintendent of jails, superintendent of public works, 
superintendent of police, it may be a joint magistrate, 



European Life in Bengal 57 



and a number of other minor officers, and the mis- 
sionaries. 

The thing considered necessary for almost the very 
existence of Europeans in India is the early morning 
exercise. This is usually in the form of a drive or 
horseback ride. The cook is on hand early in the 
morning to prepare the chota-hazri (small breakfast), 
which consists of perhaps a cup of tea or chocolate, a 
banana, a slice of toast, and a boiled egg. The syce 
(groom) is there to get the horses or ponies ready, so 
that as soon as convenient one may commence the 
morning exercise. A half-hour's gallop on horseback 
sends the blood bounding through the veins, and makes 
one feel fresh and strong for the work of the day. Un- 
less duties are very pressing, most Europeans will 
spend from one-half to an hour in this kind of exercise. 

In another chapter I will speak of the domestic 
duties of the missionary's wife. What is true of her 
is also true to some extent of some of the society 
women, and especially those of limited means. Others 
pay but little attention to domestic affairs. They have 
competent servants to look after the buying and the 
preparation and serving of food. These same servants 
are also fully competent to see that a proper share of 
profits goes into their own pockets (figuratively speak- 
ing, for they have no pockets to speak of). 

The morning exercises being over, each man enters 
upon the duties of his office. I have also spoken of the 
kutchery. To this you will see the various officials 
going whose duties call them there. It happens in some 
parts of India that for three months they have " morn- 



58 India and Dady Life in Bengal 

ing kutchery " ; i. e., the offices and rooms of the va- 
rious departments are open from 6 a. m. to 12 noon. 
This is during the hottest months of April, May, and 
June. When there is morning kutchery, work is con- 
tinued until noon, when the various officers go home 
and have their bath and breakfast, indulge in a mid- 
day nap, and are ready by 5 p. m. for the evening 
gathering. This will be as good a place as any to say 
that every bedroom has a bathroom attached to it. 
The floors of these are pucca, so that you may use 
water freely with no fear that it will leak through the 
floor. There are also conductors to carry the waste 
water away. Usually in these bathrooms there is one 
large earthen vessel, which will hold from four to 
eight pails of water, and two or three smaller earthen 
jars. The large vessel is placed on the floor, and the 
smaller ones on a ledge which separates the compart- 
ment where we bathe from that in which we dress. 
The bathing Is done by either pouring the water over 
one or by getting bodily in the large vessel, sometimes 
both ways. Some people have a servant both to pour 
the water over them and also to dry them, but usually 
the bather himself does this. 

Nine months in the year there is midday kutchery; 
I. e,, from 10 a. m. to 5 p. m. In this case bath and 
breakfast are taken before going to work, and often a 
bath after the day's work is done. 

Now let us come to an hour in the day to which all 
society people look forward with pleasure, and for 
which it seems some of them live, and but for which 
life in India would to many be an intolerable burden. 



European Life in Bengal 59 



I refer to the evening meeting at the clubhouse, if 
there is a clubhouse, or at some official's house if the 
station is too small to afford a clubhouse. Usually 
by five-thirty, and often before, the frequenters of the 
club will begin to assemble. Here is a tennis court, or 
perhaps more than one, and inside the building are bil- 
liard tables, tables for cards, sideboards for liquor, ta- 
bles for dining, and a room for dancing. Not infre- 
quently there is a large field near-by for polo playing. 
While daylight lasts the people are generally occupied 
with tennis, either as active participants or as specta- 
tors and commentators on the game. Some indulge in 
conversation. If it happens to be both gentlemen and 
ladies who are together, the men think they must oc- 
cupy their portion of the time by " small talk " to en- 
tertain the ladies. Men highly educated and capable 
of conversing on almost any subject intelligently and 
interestingly, will stoop to the most silly talk when 
conversing with a lady. I never understood the reason 
for this. It is not because the ladies are not capable 
of sensible conversation, as I can testify from personal 
experience. 

There is one peculiarity of twilight in India, and 
that is that there is almost none of it. The sun may be 
shining now, but in a few moments it has dropped 
behind the horizon and in a little time it is starlight. 
This fact in nature often stops a game half-played. 
Tea has been served and also something which both 
" cheers and inebriates," and now the party sit in easy- 
chairs and sip their tea and whisky and soda. There 
are very few men who do not take their '' pegs " freely 



60 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

— and alas! many of them much too freely. Many a 
fine specimen of a man goes to an early grave from 
too much strong drink. His friends say, *' The beastly 
climate " ; or, " He had a touch of his liver." The 
climate is chargeable with many things for which it 
is not to blame. 

The ladies also frequently indulge, and some of 
them even to excess. Of course, they do not get drunk 
or disorderly, by any means, but I have seen them 
visibly influenced by wine and brandy and water. In 
our own station, for example, the evening was spent 
by society people in singing, banjo or piano playing, 
billiards, and sometimes cards. 

Station dinners are frequent; or, if not for the 
whole station, for smaller parties. To these dinners 
missionaries are frequently invited, and would no 
doubt be more frequently invited if they would more 
often accept the invitations. When the lieutenant- 
governor or any high official visits the station there 
is usually a State dinner, and at these functions after- 
dinner toasts are the proper thing. Sometimes the 
people indulge in small theatricals, and some very 
creditable playing is done. To be as happy and jolly 
as possible, and have the days swiftly speed by, is 
the desire of the heart of nearly every English official 
in India. I would not say that they are faithless in 
the discharge of their duty. On the other hand, they 
are, as a rule, faithful in the work given them to do. 

Society people in India, like those of England, are 
very particular concerning matters of etiquette. For 
example, if a person comes into the station it is 



European Life in Bengal 61 



proper for him to call on all the people in the station 
of his class. If he does not call on any families he 
has told them plainly that he does not care for any 
social intercourse with them. We will say that the 
newcomer has moved into the station. He may be 
the magistrate. Almost the first thing, he will mount 
his dog-cart and make his calls. He drives up to 
the door and hands his card to the servant he may see. 
The servant, even though he is a sweeper, understands 
the meaning of this, for the native servants are quick 
to catch on to European etiquette. The servant hands 
the card to the lady of the house if there is one, if not, 
then to the gentleman, and a *' salaam " is usually 
taken back by this same servant. The word salaam 
is a common one in India and has many meanings. 
Sometimes it means " thank you," or it may mean 
" you are welcome," or it may mean a rebuke. In 
this case it means, " tell the gentleman to enter." 
Gentlemen always rise to meet gentlemen or ladies. 
The man makes but a short call, but he has done his 
duty and opens the way for you to call on him. On 
leaving, people never say, " Now come and see me." 
You are expected to go and see them. If you do not, 
the way is barred for any further social relations. 
Sometimes there is a good deal of jealousy in a sta- 
tion, and especially if a high official comes and leaves 
out some of the people from his list of expected calls. 
If a man and his wife call, or a larger party, a servant 
is ordered to bring on tea and biscuit, and the whole 
party will sit about the teapoys (tables) and sip the 
delicious India tea from delicate china teacups. 



62 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

The biscuits are imported from England and Australia 
in hermetically sealed tins, and are of different brands 
and very palatable. In all well-regulated households a 
quantity of these is always on hand. 

The matter of personal appearance is as much sub- 
ject to society rules as anything else. A lady must 
not be seen by callers in a loose morning gown though 
it completely cover her person, while exceedingly low 
neck and short sleeves are all right for an evening- 
party. A gentleman will not come into the presence of 
a lady in his shirt-sleeves, unless it be at tennis, and 
then a white flannel shirt and no coat is quite proper. 
If your shoes are canvas and white, they should be 
made more so by applications of whiting; if black, the 
leather should be clean and shining. It is almost an 
unpardonable sin to appear in company with one's 
shoes not properly cleaned. These things are not 
matters of taste, but standards by which men are 
measured. 

European life in India would be far from complete 
with no reference to the children. In the first place, 
there is no doubt but the children are left far too 
much to the care of the native servants. The girl 
baby or child will have a female attendant (ayah), 
and the boy a male attendant (bearer). 

These do all the labor connected with the care of 
the children. They dress and undress them, feed 
them, bathe them, put them to bed, go with them 
for rides, drives, and walks, keep them out of the 
sun, play with them, receive the approval or disap- 
proval of the children with meekness, and often their 



European Life in Bengal 63 

blows in silence. These servants are supposed to take 
the best of care of the children, who in turn become 
veritable little tyrants. It often happens that, when 
the parents suppose the children are having a delight- 
ful morning outing in the fresh air, they are off down 
in the native village at the home of the ayah or bearer, 
breathing the foul air ever present in these places. If 
foul air were all they inhaled, it would not be so bad, 
but vile conversation is often heard and unchaste sights 
are seen, until the young life is contaminated before it 
is able even to reason or scarcely talk. If the child is 
restless or fretful, the chances are that opium will be 
administered on the sly, for many of the natives think 
opium is a medicine which will cure all ills. Eternal 
vigilance on the part of the parents is the price of the 
health and morals of European children born and 
reared in India. 

It is generally customary for the mother to take the 
children home to England, and stay with them during 
the school days. Now, however, there are excellent 
schools in Darjeeling, Nina Tal, and Landour for 
European children, and the climate is all that one can 
desire. But the moral influence one can only escape 
by leaving the country. 

To put in a single chapter of twenty pages or less 
what might fill a volume is, of course, impossible. I 
have given a glance at the landscape. We catch the 
prominent points, the hilltops, the lakes, and streams, 
and deep gorges, but the details — the trees and grass, 
the houses, fences, and flowers — we must leave imagi- 
nation to supply. 

E 



CHAPTER VI 
Roads, Highways, and Waterways 

INDIA is a country of extremes, and the statements 
made by different people are so very different that 
we often think somebody is stretching the truth. 
It is safe to say that India has the worst and the 
best roads in the world. As an illustration, let me give 
a bit of personal experience : At one time I wanted to 
visit a bungalow, or rest-house, which was in quite a 
remote part of the district. Near this bungalow, as is 
very often the case, was a police outpost and thannah. 
The name of the place was Bhograi. I had never been 
there, so I knew nothing of the road, but was told by 
several natives about there that it was only six miles 
from where I was camping, that the road leading to the 
place was good, and that I would have no trouble in 
reaching my destination. 

Traveling in the middle of the day is not safe at any 
season of the year on account of the heat, so I waited 
until about 3 p. m. before starting. I took with 
me a bhangy wallah, which means a man with a bam- 
boo pole across his shoulder, to the ends of which are 
suspended by means of ropes two burdens of equal 
weight. This man went to carry provisions, water, 
and some blankets for bedding. I had also a cook 
with a few, very few, cooking utensils, and a man to 
look after the pony. Two of my native preachers 
64 




Tenting in Bengal 




Off for cold-scasun work in tents or bnngaloK's 



Roads, Highways, and Waterways 65 

were with me. I mounted the pony and away we 
started in fine style. 

We had not gone more than a mile before we came 
to a large tidal river, and as there was no way to get 
the horse across except to swim him, which was un- 
safe on account of the deep mud on either side, I sent 
him back with the man who cared for him, and the 
rest of us got in a dugout and crossed the river. Be- 
fore I could land I had to take off my shoes and stock- 
ings and roll my pantaloons up as far as possible. 
This was made necessary on account of the deep mud 
through which we must wade before getting on dry 
ground. We helped each other, and wallowed through 
as best we could. I found a place to wash my feet and 
legs, and putting on my shoes we started out briskly 
for our bungalow, which was now but five miles away. 

We had not gone very far over the rice fields be- 
fore we came to a tidal khal. These are natural 
canals making back from the rivers and the sea. When 
the tide is in they are full, and when out they are 
empty. There is always plenty of mud in the bottom. 
This time the mud and the water were a foot deeper 
than we had calculated on, with a corresponding re- 
sult to our clothing. As we found these khals nu- 
merous, we gave up putting on and taking off shoes 
and stockings ; and, barefoot and with shoes and stock- 
ings in hand, we went on, winding now through the 
narrow street of a village, again through a khal, and 
then through a rice field, and did not reach our bunga- 
low until nine o'clock. We found it stripped of every 
piece of furniture; so, getting a few sheaves of rice- 



66 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

straw from the village, we made our bed upon the hard 
stone floor and rested, contemplating the luxury of 
traveling over " good roads." 

To reach most of the Hindu villages of southern 
Bengal during the rainy season, one would pass 
through a similar experience. The produce is taken 
in and out on the backs of bullocks, the shoulders of 
men, and the heads of the women; and one may look 
in almost any direction, and he will see these coming 
and going over the little winding dams, which separate 
the small rice fields from each other. These are the 
lowest grade of roads, and constitute three-fourths of 
all the roads. 

The next higher class of roads are the kancha roads 
of the country. Let us understand the words kancha 
and pucca before we go any farther, for they are such 
significant words that they have become Anglicized. 
Kancha means incomplete, and pucca the opposite. 
Kancha may be applied to a poor road, to unripe fruit, 
to a man who lacks a little in intelligence, to a poorly 
constructed house, or to a poor job of work of any 
kind. The greater portion of the country roads of 
America would be called kancha in India. These roads 
may be found every five or six miles apart, leading 
out from some larger village to a main trunk road, 
which runs, I think, through every district in the 
country. 

One is liable to many different kinds of experiences 
in traveling over these roads. In Bengal they are 
usually narrow turnpikes, and the bridges are quite 
often made of wood. The floods may wash the turn- 




Bringing in rice sheaves from the Held 




Bringing rice to market 



Roads, Highways, and Waterways 67 



pike away, or the natives may steal the planks from 
the bridge. If one starts with an ox-cart or a horse- 
cart over one of these roads, he is not quite sure how 
far he can go. Especially is this true in the rains, or 
immediately after the rains. 

But when we come to the pucca roads, we come to 
the best that can be made. Take the pilgrim road for 
an example. It starts, we might say, as far up as 
Delhi, and runs down through the country to Puri. 
It is a thousand miles long. The roadway is from one 
hundred to a hundred and fifty feet wide, and the turn- 
pike is forty feet wide, and from two to ten feet high. 
It has metal put upon it, either gingta, a hard nugget 
of limestone, or laterite, a mixture of iron and stone. 
These are spread upon the road, then thoroughly satu- 
rated, and beaten down by men with iron beaters and 
allowed to bake in the hot sun. This is a pucca road, 
and is almost as hard and smooth as dressed stone. 

Peepul, banyan, and mango trees are planted along 
the roadside, so as to furnish grateful shelter to the 
traveler. Many of these were planted years ago by 
the government, and are now so large that they form 
in places beautiful avenues. All of the public roads 
are built and maintained by the government. People 
do not pay their road tax by doing a day's work as at 
home, and then putting in a day on the road, all inside 
of fifteen hours. One path-master does not throw up 
an embankment and another tear it down, but compe- 
tent engineers have charge, the work is let by contract, 
and when completed it is inspected. No one who is 
acquainted with Indian character and ways of doing 



68 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

things will say that the money appropriated is all 
honestly expended; but it is, comparatively speaking, 
fairly well expended, and the good roads are kept in 
good order, and other roads are being constantly im- 
proved. The bridges on these turnpike roads are either 
iron or brick, and very substantial. 

No description of a road would be complete, es- 
pecially for Bengal, without reference to the ferries. 
We must bear in mind that this part of the country is 
level, and the banks of the rivers are usually low, so 
the difficulty of making bridges is great. Then again, 
the very heavy rains fill these more than full, so that 
sometimes they are many times their usual width. 
Therefore ferries are in most places substituted. Do 
not think of a Brooklyn ferry, or even of a Western 
river ferry of this country, with an anchorage up 
stream, but of a ferry propelled by men with long bam- 
boo poles, whose principal business is not to see how 
quickly they can get you across the stream, but rather 
to see how much time they can consume, and how much 
baksheesh they can get out of you. This, of course, 
does not include the toll for the use of the ferry. As 
one side at least of almost every river has a low, sandy 
bottom, the ferry is propelled until the bottom strikes 
the sand; then planks are put down, and the cart and 
carriage are run out into the water, and the traveler 
sits on the hands of the boatmen, who unite their 
strength to carry him out to dry ground. We do not 
so much object to putting our arms around the neck 
of each of these men, but sometimes the ladies would 
rather be excused. But it must be done, all the same. 



Roads, Highways, and Waterways 69 



Then the sand is deep and wide, and the oxen or horses 
cannot draw the load, and must therefore be assisted. 
These boatmen are always ready, for a consideration, 
to help turn wheels. Europeans can get across rather 
quickly, say in from one to two hours, but sometimes 
the poor native cartmen have to sit in the sand from 
six to eight hours, awaiting their turn. 

Aside from roads, the government has made canals 
as highways in many places. Some of these answer the 
double purpose of a watercourse for boats, and irriga- 
tion for the rice fields, and some are for irrigation 
alone. Both classes of canals irrigate thirty million 
acres. Any man has the privilege of putting a boat 
on the canal, but must pay a lock fee according to the 
capacity of his boat and the distance he goes. 

Among the provisions made by the government for 
its officers are rest-houses along these roads and canals. 
These are called bungalows and are classified as 
inspection bungalows and dak-bungalows. At the 
latter a cook is kept, and one can always order a 
meal. At the former one must furnish his own cook 
and food. There are very few dak-bungalows in 
Bengal. These buildings are situated on as desirable a 
site as can be found, and are about ten miles distant 
from each other. They are generally divided into two 
apartments, each consisting of one room and a bath- 
room. The furniture for each apartment consists of 
one bedstead, one table, two or three chairs, and some- 
times a stand and a commode, and a large earthen jar 
for bathroom purposes. In traveling, therefore, a per- 
son must take with him his bedding, food, light, water 



70 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

for drinking, and anything else he may need in a jour- 
ney. At any time of the day or night he may go to 
one of these bungalows, call up the watchman, and take 
possession, providing the building is unoccupied. The 
right of occupancy depends upon the grade of the 
officers occupying it. Any European has a right to 
the building, if unoccupied, by paying one rupee a day. 
When five or six people wish to stay at one bungalow 
over night, where there are only two beds, some amu- 
sing and interesting experiences take place. 

The only time I ever was in jail over night was on 
an occasion of this kind. We were going to our an- 
nual meeting at Midnapore. There were six of us in 
company, and we had planned to stop at a certain bun- 
galow. We thought our large wagon would furnish a 
bedroom for two, and the two beds of the bungalow 
would do for the rest of us. As we came near the 
bungalow, tired and hungry, the shades of night were 
gathering. We congratulated ourselves that food, 
shelter, and rest were not far away, but a little closer 
view disclosed the fact that the building was full to 
overflowing of English officials and their wives. We 
moved on to the bazaar, took our supper under a tree, 
and found a shelter for ourselves ; i. e., we men in the 
jail near-by, while the ladies slept in the wagon. 

RAILWAYS. 

The first railroad in India was completed in 1853. 
It ran from Bombay to Tanna, a distance of three 
miles. During the mutiny of 1857- 1858 the govern- 



Roadsy Highways, and Waterways 71 

ment saw how badly it was crippled for want of means 
to transport the soldiers, and firmly resolved that if 
the country should ever see another mutiny it would 
not be thus unprepared. As soon, therefore, as the 
mutiny closed, the scheme of Lord Dalhousie, which 
had previously been before the country, was at once 
acted upon. This plan was to have a few trunk lines 
traverse the country, connecting the large cities and 
the military stations, and then construct shorter roads, 
as feeders, to connect with these. From that small 
beginning of 1853 the work has gradually, but for 
India rapidly, extended. In 1878 there were eight 
thousand miles of railroad, and in 1890 sixteen thou- 
sand miles. 

It may be of interest, since this part of the public 
works has advanced so rapidly, and since govern- 
ment critics have made so much of the way the rail- 
ways are exploiting the people, to speak more fully of 
these. The statesmen of India saw that railways were 
a necessity if the country was to be developed. All 
must now admit it, though at the commencement a 
tremendous opposition was manifested on the part of 
the people. Indeed, it is fairly presumed that the 
building of the first railway had more to do with pre- 
cipitating the mutiny than any other one thing. Now 
all the people see their great advantage. Seeing the 
necessity was one thing, and building the roads another. 
The native gentlemen of means would not put their 
money into anything so uncertain as a railway. Eng- 
lishmen were afraid to invest, for they had no assur- 
ance that the people of the country would patronize a 



72 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

railway. At length the following plans were evolved. 
There are four distinct plans by which railways are 
built, so far as the funds are concerned : 

1. *' Guaranteed lines." The government said to 
capitalists : " You build a railway through a certain 
section of the country, and we will guarantee you four 
per cent and in some cases five per cent on your invest- 
ment. We reserve the right to have a director on the 
Board to look after our interests. We shall also have 
half of the percentage over and above your guaranteed 
interest. We also reserve the right to take over the 
road after the expiration of the time for which we 
have guaranteed you the interest, by paying to you the 
cash you have actually invested." This was a fair 
proposition, and secured some of the best roads there 
are in the country. 

2. " State lines." These are built by the govern- 
ment outright. It equips the road, and in some cases 
runs it. In other cases the road is leased for a term 
of years. 

3. '' Assisted lines." The government makes certain 
guarantees with reference to interest, but each road 
proposed is considered by itself, and assisted according 
to the merits of the case. 

4. " Native State railways." These are built by the 
kings or rajahs of independent native States. 

I have said that the government reserved the right 
to buy back the roads. As a matter of fact, the gov- 
ernment has taken back eight of the best-paying roads 
of the country. The East India, the finest road in the 
country, was taken over in 1880, and the Great North- 



Roads, Highways, and Waterways 73 



ern Peninsula, with its three thousand miles o£ track, 
in 1900. In most cases the old companies are working 
the lines on a percentage. 

The roads are well built. Steel rails weighing from 
seventy-five to eighty-five pounds per yard are laid, and 
the ties are for the most part iron *' chairs." The 
average rate of all classes of passengers is less than 
one-half a cent per passenger per mile. This low aver- 
age is reached by the great bulk of the travel being 
third-class, but the rate in the intermediate is less than 
one cent per mile, and these are very comfortable com- 
partments. 

Notwithstanding these low rates, the average of 
all the roads in India pays over five per cent on the 
investment. Some pay ten per cent. One may argue 
that cheap labor may account for it. But there are 
seventeen thousand European employees, and the pay 
of these is large. 

Last year there were two hundred and seventy-one 
million passengers, who traveled on an average forty 
miles each, and only one hundred and sixty-four of 
these passengers were killed. Add together the killed 
passengers, employees, and suicides, and there is a total 
of one thousand six hundred and fourteen. 

Under Lord Curzon six thousand two hundred and 
fifty-five miles were built, and under his successor. Lord 
Minto, about four thousand miles. There are now 
thirty thousand miles completed and several thousand 
in process of construction. 

The platform at each station is as long as the train, 
and is considerably elevated above the track for the 



74 India and Daily Life in Bengal 



whole length. In the more important stations, it is 
nearly on a level with the floor of the *' carriages," and 
so is very convenient. 

When the train comes to a halt the guards open the 
doors, and the passengers get in and out. Those get- 
ting in are looking for their ** class " ; for the train has 
usually four classes of carriages. First-class is very 
fine — more commodious than, and fully as elegant, as 
our drawing-room cars. The second-class is only half 
the price of the first, and is good enough for any per- 
son. The intermediate costs half the price of the 
second, and is very good. Most missionaries ride in 
these compartments. Eight people can sit in one, but 
so few Europeans travel intermediate that usually each 
one can have a whole seat to himself when sleeping- 
time comes, for there are two shelves above which can 
be let down for this purpose. If the compartment hap- 
pens to be full, one does not sleep in very much com- 
fort; but even then there is more room than in a sin- 
gle seat in an American car. 

The next class below is third-class, and the price is 
but half the intermediate. The seats are simply 
boards, and the people are usually so crowded that 
lying down is impossible. They are necessarily com- 
partments for zenana women. All third-class pas- 
sengers, whether coolies or Brahmins, are hustled into 
their places as soon as the cars stop. At first the 
Brahmin looked horror-stricken at being put in the 
same compartment with a low-caste man, but he must 
go all the same. High and low have found that no 
harm comes to either by sitting together, so the rail- 



Roads, Highways, and Waterways 75 

roads have not only afforded cheap facilities for travel, 
but have been a great educator. 

RIVERS 

No one can look at a map of India without being 
impressed with the thought of how important a part 
the rivers form of the great highway for commerce. 
Probably there is no river in the world where such a 
variety of shipping can be found as on the Ganges 
River, between Calcutta and the sea. 

The Ganges River is larger than the Mississippi, 
and the Indus is one of the great rivers of the world. 
The Brahmaputra, though carrying a less volume of 
water than the Ganges, is about as long. In fact, 
these three rivers rise near the same place, though they 
drain nearly all India. There are a few large rivers 
which empty into the Bay of Bengal on the east coast, 
but these do not compare with the rivers mentioned. 
One strange thing about these latter is that at their 
mouth there is no harbor. There is not one natural 
harbor on the whole east coast of Bengal. 

In another chapter I have spoken of the boatmen. 



CHAPTER VII 

Architecture 

WHAT kind of houses do they have in In- 
dia ? " I could not answer that question 
in a single sentence. In general, the houses 
may be divided, into pucca and kancha. 
These words are used in the same sense as when ap- 
plied to roads. Then there are peculiar styles of build- 
ings, according to the use which is to be made of them. 
The mosques and tombs of the Mohammedans are not 
at all like the temples of the Hindus. Minarets, round- 
topped, cone-shaped domes, and arches characterize the 
former, while sharper pinnacles and domes characterize 
the latter. In large cities there are blocks not very dif- 
ferent in appearance from buildings in England and 
America. There are some very beautiful buildings in 
all of these three styles. 

The greater number of the Hindu temples are built 
of brick, and plastered with lime-and-sand mortar out- 
side and in, on the walls. Generally, in addition to 
the plaster, there are figures in stucco work both in- 
side and outside, representing different things in their 
mythology and sacred books. According to our tastes, 
these figures often represent lewd subjects. 

The better class of native gentlemen's houses are 
built of the same material as the temples. Very little 
wood is used in the construction of any of these build- 
76 




A typical house of the wealthy class, Bengal 




A temple of Juggernath 



Architecture 77 

ings, and in temples often none at all. Where doors 
are required, scantlings, four inches square, are taken 
to make the frames for the same. These are tarred to 
keep the white ants from eating them, and so put to- 
gether that the ends at the top and bottom fit into the 
solid brick wall a foot or more. All partitions are 
made of brick from the foundation, the same as the 
outer walls, and built up with them. The floor is 
made by first putting in earth enough to raise it up a 
foot or more above the level of the ground. After this 
is beaten down as hard as possible a layer of brick is 
put down, and upon the brick is laid a thick coat- 
ing of material made of equal parts of broken brick, 
gravel, lime, and coarse sand. This is wet, and beaten 
day after day until it becomes very hard. Lime is 
then wet, ground between two stones until it becomes 
like putty, and then plastered on the floor, and trow- 
eled, and wet, and beaten until it is almost as hard 
and smooth as marble. This is the way the floors of 
nearly all the houses of the missionaries, native gen- 
tlemen, and English residents are made. Some very 
fine residences and buildings have floors of porcelain, 
English tile, or marble. 

If the house has two stories, the upper floor is made 
by putting heavy timbers or iron beams from wall to 
wall, about three or four feet apart. From beam to 
beam light timbers or irons are put a foot apart, and 
on these a square native tile is laid double thickness, 
and so laid as to break joints. Then the same broken 
brick, lime, and sand are used, and put down in the 
same manner. The roof is put on in the same way. 



78 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

This explains why we can go upon the housetop to sit, 
and even to sleep at times. It often happens that white 
ants make their way up through these brick walls and 
devour the wooden beams which support the chamber 
or the roof. After a time the beams are eaten to a 
shell (for one can never see the white ants at work), 
and then comes the interesting work of " changing a 
beam." The natives are slow and awkward, so lime, 
brick, dust, and litter are about for many days. Also 
much ordering and loud talking are heard, for every 
man wants to boss the job. It often happens that the 
walls of a house are made of brick, while the roof is 
made of thatch. 

The most beautiful and costly buildings belong to 
the Mohammedan style of architecture. These abound 
in northern India, and are either mosques, palaces, or 
tombs. The palaces of Delhi and Agra are exquisite 
works of art; the tomb of Akbar at Secundra, near 
Agra, is magnificent; the tomb of Edmud-ud-dowlah 
is a perfect gem ; but the Taj Mahal, built by the Em- 
peror Shah Jehan in honor of his favorite wife, eclipses 
them all. The gateway is a magnificent structure of red 
sandstone, but serves only as a fit entrance to the tomb 
itself. From the gateway to the Taj are marble walks, 
with a hundred fountains on one side, and tall cypress 
and many other kinds of beautiful trees on the other. 
The tomb stands upon a double platform. The first 
is twenty feet high and a thousand feet long, and is 
made of red sandstone. At each end of this lower 
platform is a mosque made of the same material. The 
second platform is built in the center of the first, is 




Building a house for the poorer class 




The Taj Mahal, Agra 



Architecture 79 

three hundred and thirteen feet square and eighteen 
feet high, and is built of pure white marble. On the 
four corners of this platform are marble minarets one 
hundred and thirty-three feet high, with winding stair- 
ways in the center, from bottom to top. On the top is 
a balcony, and the outlook from this is perfectly en-- 
chanting. In the center of this platform rises the Taj, 
one hundred and eighty-six feet square, with the cor- 
ners, to the extent of thirty-three feet, cut off, forming 
an irregular octagon. In the center is the great dome, 
fifty feet in diameter and eighty feet high. Exactly 
under the center of this dome are the marble sar- 
cophagi of the emperor and his wife. The light is ad- 
mitted through trellis work, wrought exquisitely in 
slabs of white marble, producing the most soft and 
chastened effect. In many places precious stones are 
inlaid in many kinds of designs. 

The echo is not the least wonderful thing about 
this structure. If one stands by the marble coffins 
and sings, he will be surprised at the melody which 
comes back to him from his own voice. As it begins 
to ascend, it sounds like the very lowest notes of a 
great pipe organ, but as it ascends, it becomes more 
distinct and musical. The higher it rises, reverbera- 
ting from side to side, the more soft and sweet it be- 
comes, till at last, as it dies away in the top of the dome, 
one might fancy the angels were whispering his song 
back to him. I have thought how very like to this are 
the sorrows of life — harsh and discordant at first, but 
as they ascend heavenward they are robbed of their 
harshness, and at last they come back to us glorified. 



80 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

We went into the crypt of the Pantheon at Paris to 
see the resting-place of Victor Hugo, Voltaire, and 
Rousseau, and the guide for a consideration wanted 
us to hear the echo of this place, but it bears no com- 
parison to the echo of the Taj. Some one has said that 
the Taj is '* a poem in marble." 

But let us pass from poetry to prose, from this fairy 
place to the common houses of the people. There is 
only one Taj, and one Imimbarrah, and a few palaces, 
but there are millions of houses of the common people, 
and nineteen out of every twenty of the people live in 
these common houses. 

Let us proceed to build one. We first count our 
money to see what kind of house it is to be. If we 
have five dollars we plan accordingly, and if we have 
twenty-five dollars we can do much better. Suppose it 
be the latter sum. We call men whose business it is to 
build mud walls, and tell them how large a house we 
want, and how many " hands " there will be in the 
walls. After a good deal of bickering, they agree to 
take the customary price of eight cents a hand for lay- 
ing up the walls. That is, the walls are to be seven 
and one-half feet high, and for each foot and a half in 
length of this wall they are to have eight cents. We 
furnish them with two or three large, heavy hoes, a 
half-dozen waterpots, and a long string of twisted 
grass or jute, and they are ready to build the house. 
First a string is put around where the outside of the 
walls are to be. This is secured at the four corners by 
pins driven into the ground. Inside of this string is 
another, the distance from the outside string which the 



Architecture 81 

thickness of the wall is to be. The ground between 
these two strings is dug up, wet, and worked by the 
feet and big hoes, until it becomes a mortar. It then 
bakes in the sun until it is hard. A little way outside 
the walls a hole is dug, from which mud is taken to 
build the walls. First a layer a foot high is put on and 
allowed to stand a week or so, that it may be hard and 
dry. Then another one is put on, and so on, layer 
after layer, until the wall is the desired height. Bam- 
boo poles are put on for rafters, and these extend about 
three feet over the walls. Across these rafters split 
bamboos are tied about two inches apart. Upon this 
the rice-straw is laid smoothly, and fastened to its place 
by another strip of split bamboo. The fastening is 
done by putting a long bamboo needle, which has a 
string attached to it, down through the straw, around 
a rafter, and up over the split bamboo, tying the string 
securely. If the outside walls were twenty by forty 
feet, it does not argue that the roof will cover all that 
space. Two cross walls are made, leaving an open 
court in the center. There is but one outside door, 
with a few small holes for windows. Around the out- 
side of the house is a mud veranda, covered by the 
projecting roof. This veranda is the reception-room 
for men who may call, and especially for strangers. 
There are a few wooden bars put in the windows, and 
a small door to keep out the cold air in winter and to 
keep in the smoke. The cooking is frequently done 
in one corner of the room, allowing the smoke to get 
out the best way it can. 

In northern India, as also in southern India, we see 



82 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

very little straw thatching. There tile is used. In fact, 
most of the native shops in Calcutta are covered with 
tile. 

Many of the aborigines live in huts covered with 
grass, or the leaves of a scrubby palm. The roof and 
walls are one and the same, and the people enter these 
houses by crawling into them. We see, therefore, that 
there are all kinds of buildings in India, from the hut 
just described to the Taj Mahal, which took twenty 
thousand men twenty years to build. 



CHAPTER VIII 
Productions, Natural and Otherwise 

BENGAL is, strictly speaking, a rice country, and 
northern India a wheat country. These two 
grains are the staple of the dishes of the peo- 
ple. A number of varieties of the pulse family 
grow on higher and more sandy land. Some of the 
grains of these are as large as our common pea, others 
are much smaller. These several varieties have dif- 
ferent names, but in general are called dal. A good 
deal of millet and of inferior grains of that kind is 
raised north. Flax is raised, and oats and corn, on the 
lower ranges of the Himalayas. 

There is quite a variety of roots. The sweet potato 
does well on the plains, and the Irish potato in the 
mountains and on the west coast. There is a large 
kind of radish which may be eaten either raw or 
cooked, and which is produced in large quantities. 
Artichokes, yams, and the roots of the caladium are 
also articles of food. 

Many kinds of vegetables grow well. There is a 
large variety belonging to the gourd family, as squash, 
pumpkins, cucumbers, watermelons, and muskmelons, 
citron, and other varieties not produced in America. 
Almost all kinds of European vegetables may be raised 
in Bengal and farther north in the winter season. The 
eggplant is extensively cultivated in many parts of 

83 



84 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

Bengal in the winter. There are many other kinds 
of native vegetables with which we in America are 
wholly unacquainted. All European vegetables are very 
tasteless in India compared with the same thing in 
America. 

A great variety of fruit is raised, but as a rule a 
great variety is not grown in any one place. Bananas 
are the most common. Pineapples, custard apples, 
mangoes, jack-fruit, bael, papayas, and guavas are, 
aside from bananas, the principal fruits of Bengal. 
Assam produces oranges and lemons; and a large 
sweet orange is grown, as are also sweet limes, farther 
north. The Afghans bring down fresh grapes, apples, 
raisins, and nuts. Cocoanuts grow more or less in 
many parts of the country. 

Sugar-cane plantations abound. The natives manu- 
facture a coarse brown sugar, from which they make 
their native sweets, and from which also great quanti- 
ties of refined sugar are produced in Calcutta and else- 
where. 

Jute and opium are among the exports, also oils of 
different kinds, as cocoanut, mustard, and castor oil. 
Sheep, goats, cows, and buffaloes are among the most 
useful and common of animals. From the milk of the 
cow and the buffalo the natives make a butter which, 
when melted and clarified, is called ghee. This is 
most important, as it enters into almost every well- 
cooked meal, whether of the European or the native. 

In Calcutta and other large cities which have rail- 
road communication with other parts, almost every 
kind of these fruits and vegetables may be found, but 



Productions 85 

in the more secluded and remote places the question 
of getting a variety to eat at times becomes a trouble- 
some one. At Balasore we could get mangoes in May 
and June, custard apples in July and August, jack-fruit 
at the same time, and also pineapples, while bananas 
grew the year round; but the supply was liable to be 
short, and if so we must go without. 

" What do the people eat ? " This is a most common 
question. We could answer it in a general way by say- 
ing they eat about what the country produces. There 
are some things a good Hindu will not eat. He never 
takes life of any kind, and therefore will not eat flesh 
of any kind, except, in some places, fish. Then a third 
of the people do not get enough of the plainest kind of 
food to satisfy their hunger. These must eat the cheap- 
est things they can get In the mango season this 
fruit is eagerly eaten from the time it is as large as a 
plum, up to the time it ripens. When ripe it is as large 
as a large apple. It is not because the country does 
not produce enough for the people to eat that many do 
not have enough, but because they are too poor to buy 
it. There are millions of bushels of rice and wheat 
shipped from India every year. 

Leaving out the very poor, who do not have regular 
daily meals of cooked food, let us see what those eat 
who do. In Bengal boiled rice and boiled split peas, 
called dal, is the principal thing. The rice is boiled, and 
the water turned off into a separate dish. The rice is 
then put back again on the fire for a few minutes, when 
it comes off dry and fluffy. In the dal some mustard 
oil or ghee, and salt, pepper, and other spices are put. 



86 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

The natives take their rice and put it either upon a brass 
plate or a banana leaf, make a hole in the center, into 
which they turn the dal, and then proceed to mix the 
whole together with their fingers. Their table is a 
grass mat spread upon the floor over which may or may 
not be spread a cloth, and their chairs are their legs 
crossed under them. The male members of the family 
eat first, while the other portion waits upon them. The 
women have their meals afterward, if there is enough 
for all. In place of the dal they frequently make a 
curry with either vegetables or fish for a foundation, 
having otherwise about the same seasoning as the dal. 
Onions and huldee (a pungent root) enter into almost 
all of their well-cooked dishes. They make a pudding 
from rice, milk, and sugar, seasoning it with camphor. 
This is eaten only on rare occasions. The wealthy are 
very fond of sweets, and eat a great many. They have 
a very great variety of these. If a person calls on a 
native gentleman, and he wishes to be very cordial, he 
sends out a servant to the bazaar to bring in a tray of 
mixed native sweets. Many Europeans do not care 
for these, but I was very fond of them. The water 
turned from the rice of the last night's dinner consti- 
tutes the breakfast of most of the laboring people in the 
rice districts. In upper India wheat is ground whole 
and baked into cakes; this takes the place of rice in 
Bengal. 

"What do you missionaries eat?" Rice, dal, and 
curry, are much more largely eaten in India than in 
America ; but, aside from these, if one lives in a city like 
Calcutta he can get many of the same things he can get 



F *_-.. 


jj^^j^^Kmni^ 




^jiR-'^^^^ 


Rl^HP*^^^^^^H 


i 


€ -• 


' J^^^m^p*r^^^. — "" 




*'» ^ ^^""j^jgHttRiLt j^ 



y^ pilgrim preparing his cokes 
by the roadside 




Productions 87 

at home; i. e., if he has the money, for what is not pro- 
duced in the country is imported from England, Aus- 
traha, and the United States. But back in remote 
stations it is a very different thing. As I said, you 
are for fruits largely dependent upon local supply, 
which may fail. No beef can be had, and but little 
mutton and fish. Chicken, poor and tough, is the only 
thing one can be sure of in the meat line, and even then 
he must look sharp or the supply may run out. Gen- 
erally one can get what eggs he needs, and milk, if he 
keeps his own cows. We have taught native Christians 
how to milk to suit us, and could buy milk of them. 
We never think of using the milk from an ordinary 
Hindu village. They have a way of cleaning dishes 
and flavoring milk which we have not been educated 
into liking. One can get about what bread he needs, 
but it is not very good; also in the winter, vegetables 
from the garden; and in the rains, native vegetables. 
As a rule, the eating habits of the natives are simple, 
and so are those of the missionaries. I would hardly 
recommend any person, however, to go to India for 
the sake of what he might get to eat. 

Some years ago the government started near Ali- 
gurh, in north India, an experimental dairy farm, and 
called Edward Keventer, an expert from Sweden, to 
manage it. He demonstrated that good butter could 
be produced in the country. After this fact was es- 
tablished, Mr. Keventer bought the plant from the 
government and has greatly enlarged the business, so 
that now good butter may be sent by rail or parcel- 
post to any home in India. 



CHAPTER IX 

Climate 

YOU may have in India almost any kind of cli- 
mate your means and taste may suggest. In 
the north you may go up the Himalaya Moun- 
tains until you come to the fields of perpetual 
ice and snow. These are not the ordinary snow-capped 
mountains, but those grand ranges whose cold summits 
seem to pierce the very sky. It is not necessary to go 
to the top of these ranges to find eternal winter. 
The top, in fact, was never reached by man or beast. 
Even the birds in their loftiest flights never scaled the 
heights of such mountains as Everest, twenty-nine 
thousand feet high; or Kanchanjanga, twenty-eight 
thousand feet high. Ten thousand feet below the top 
of these you could build your snow house and live as 
the Eskimo does, if some great glacier did not carry 
your house away. If you did not like this, you could 
go to the south of India, where you would have sum- 
mer the year around. So warm is it here that the chilly 
wind is scarcely ever felt, and the blighting frost is 
never known. 

On the plains between the mountains of the north 
and the perpetual summer of the south, there is almost 
every degree of climate. In the Punjab summer is 
hot, but shorter, and the winter quite cold. In the 
northwestern provinces, the heat of summer is more 
88 



Climate 89 

intense than it is even farther south, on account of the 
hot winds blowing off the sands of central India and 
Rajputana. It is not an uncommon thing for the ther- 
mometer to register 120° on the veranda. The rains 
here close earlier, and refreshing, cool nights are ex- 
perienced by October i. Ice, one-fourth of an inch 
thick, is formed on some of the coldest nights, and this 
cooler season lasts longer than in Bengal. On the 
plains of Bengal and Orissa we never have frosts or 
snow. The hot season here begins with the change of 
the wind from the northwest to the southeast. When 
the latter wind is really established the hot season is 
upon us. This is usually about March i. The longer 
the wind blows the hotter the season becomes, so that 
April, May, and the most of June give us our hottest 
months. The thermometer wnll range from 90° to 
100° in the house most of the time during these 
months. We are liable to have a few thunder-storms 
in May, which are most refreshing after the hot, dry 
winds of March and April. 

About June 1 5 or 20 we look for a break in the sea- 
son. Dark clouds in the northwest, loud claps of 
thunder, and some hard winds tell us the rains are 
approaching. These are more or less constant until 
November. At the beginning they are refreshing. 
The air is cooler and the grass springs up green and 
fresh. In July the rains are more constant, and the 
sun comes out between showers, often very hot and 
sultry, and one begins to feel the depressing influence 
of the humid, hot atmosphere. In August the fields 
are full of water, and rivers have overflowed their 



90 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

banks; tanks and ditches are full, and the ground is 
so filled that it sometimes seems as if the very earth 
were turning into a bed of mortar; the atmosphere is 
full of moisture, and still it rains. As September 
comes there is no cessation, but rather an increase. 
The rank vines growing up the trees and beside gar- 
den walls, and sometimes running up the sides of 
your houses and over the gate-posts, droop their 
leaves to shake themselves from their shower-bath; 
trees are in mourning; and the very grass has lost 
heart, and no longer tries to stand erect. Shoes, har- 
ness, trunks, books, and everything that can gather 
moisture is covered with mold. And still it rains. 
White ants with wings fly at night into your house, 
and gnats of all kinds so fill the air in the vicinity of 
the lamp that at times you can hardly keep them out 
of your mouth or eyes as you try to read aloud. These 
large white ants with wings sometimes want to share 
the gravy and roast for dinner, and when you find a 
few of them in the dish you lean back and wish audi- 
bly that the rains were over. 

October comes and showers are less frequent. You 
someway feel a difference in the atmosphere. It is 
about as hot, and there is nearly as much mud, but 
still you feel that autumn is coming. Some morning 
you wake up early and find a northwest wind blowing 
in your room, and you exclaim with joy, " The winter 
is coming ! '' In an hour it is back again in the south, 
but you know the cold season is approaching. There is 
sometimes a war in the elements, and this is also the 
season for cyclones. At last, however, the wind is in 



Climate 91 

the northwest to stay, and as it blows down off the 
snow and ice fields of the Himalayas you begin to feel 
new life coming back to you. The sky is so blue, and 
the atmosphere so clear, and the rice fields so golden, 
and the cattle so sleek and fat, that all feel like re- 
joicing over the changed condition and the prospect 
before us. But alas ! this is also the season of fevers, 
and so severe and persistent are these, that of all the 
deaths in India, though we hear much of cholera and 
smallpox, ninety per cent are from this cause. The 
missionary now begins to plan for his country tours, 
and the farmer to gather in his harvest. Of these I 
will speak in another chapter. 




CHAPTER X 
Scenery and Sights 

^HE great diversity in climate suggests a di- 
versity in scenery, and so there is. Suppose 
we begin at the mouth of the HugH River, 
which is one of the principal mouths of the 
Ganges, and go up this river as far as Calcutta, just 
as we did when we went to India, then take a trip into 
the country by road, and we get an idea of Bengal. 
We are on shipboard, and are seeing India for the 
first time. Our good ship drops her anchor near the 
pilot brig, at the mouth of the river, and the pilot steps 
on board to take charge of her up the dangerous and 
treacherous channel. We are so full of expectancy 
that we do not sleep much, and early in the morning 
are on deck. Soon all is commotion. The tide will 
soon be rising, and we must run up with the full tide. 
The order is given to raise the anchor, and the little 
steam winches begin such a rattling that little else can 
be heard. 

But the bay ! Are our spirits so joyful because our 
long voyage of fourteen thousand miles is so nearly 
over, or is the water the most beautiful we have ever 
looked at? The bay is as placid as a sea of glass, and 
the great red sun comes up and turns this sea of glass 
into a sea of melted gold. To the right and left, at a 
great distance, the dark-blue coast line can be seen. 

92 



Scenery and Sights 93 



We start with the rising tide. The shores on either 
side begin to converge, and soon we are in the channel 
of the river, and flying up at the rate of eighteen miles 
an hour. Objects on both banks can be distinctly seen. 
I said to my wife, who had been in India before, 
" Wife, what a lot of hay the people in this country 
must use." She said, ''What makes you think so?" 
I replied, " Why, look at the haystacks." '' Those are 
not haystacks; those are houses!" Here and there, 
all along either side of the river, might be seen clusters 
of these houses, some of them simply farmers' houses, 
and some of them villages in which were shops and 
stores. The thatch which made the roofs of these 
houses was the '* haystacks " which I saw. On the 
banks also could be seen palm trees, sometimes a sin- 
gle lonely tree, and sometimes clusters of palms — palms 
of various kinds, such as date, palmyra, and cocoanut. 
Here was a grove of mango trees, and there an orchard 
of bananas, and yonder clusters of beautiful, feathery 
bamboos. 

And such a scene on the river! Great ocean steam- 
ers from almost every country in the world; large 
ships being towed up and down by giant tugboats, and 
native crafts of all kinds. Sometimes we would pass 
two native boats fastened together, loaded with straw, 
and so loaded that nothing of the boat was visible ex- 
cept the scaffolding at the hinder end, upon which the 
man stood who held the long oar used for a rudder; 
and sometimes boats loaded almost to the water's edge 
with native pottery, brick, fruits, etc. Sometimes they 
were propelled by all but naked oarsmen walking back 



94 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

and forth upon the prow, as they pulled the huge oars, 
and somethnes by sails — square, oblong, or three- 
cornered; black, white, or yellow; whole, patched, or 
in tatters. As we approached Calcutta, the river was 
fairly alive with steamboats of smaller burden. Some 
of these were bound up the river for Assam, and others 
up the various rivers forming the delta of the Ganges, 
while still others were coasting steamers. 

At length our steamer fastens to the buoy, and we are 
immediately surrounded by a score or more of small 
native boats — dingeys and green boats. The boatmen 
swarm upon the deck, notwithstanding kicks and cuffs 
from the officers of the steamer, and in an unknown 
tongue begin to talk to us. They want to take us 
ashore, and in due time we are landed on the bank. 
Literally hundreds of coolies are waiting here, and 
each wants a hand in taking our things. We become 
almost distracted in the babel of noise. Here too 
stands the tikka garrie (carriage for hire), and each 
driver clamors for our luggage, and unless we look 
sharp will get a portion of it. 

And now we are in Calcutta, the capital of British 
India, and In many respects one of the most wonderful 
of cities. It, with Howrah on the opposite side of the 
river, contains a population of over a million people. 
This city is not easily described, but must be seen to 
be appreciated. There are streetcars and ox-carts, 
beautiful carriages containing ladies and gentlemen of 
the highest social position, and all but naked coolies, 
side by side. Here is a palace, in which are all the 
luxuries and beauties which wealth and a refined taste 




Procuresses near Kali's temple, Calcutta 




Devotees bathing in the Ganges, Calcutta 



Scenery and Sights 95 



suggest, and within fifty feet the watchman at the gate, 
cooking, eating, and sleeping in a room eight feet 
square. Here are most magnificent European stores, 
and but a few feet away a native sitting in a Httle room 
dealing out his wares. Here are the Eden gardens, 
with electric lights, fountains, and exquisite music fur- 
nished by the viceroy's band, and not far distant the 
vender of native sweets in his shanty, sitting over his 
pot of boiling oil making his candies. Here is a French 
theater and almost across the street is Chandnee ba- 
zaar, with its hundreds of tile-roofed one-story shops, 
and labyrinth of streets not more than four feet wide. 
From narrow Bentick Street, with its numerous Chi- 
nese shops and the rattle and din of native life, you 
come out on the great beautiful Maidan. This latter is 
an open park, consisting of many hundreds of acres of 
land, lying between Chowringee Street and the river. 
It was once covered with native villages, but these were 
bought by the government and torn down. 

The Maidan is worth going a long way to see. It is 
a dead level piece of ground, with here and there a 
cluster of trees and many beautiful roads, but is mainly 
a grass-plot. On almost any evening of the year, ex- 
cept when it is raining, you may see every kind of a 
turnout imaginable. Some cartmen are returning from 
their work, with their little bullocks and carts. Then 
perhaps a Chinese comes arrayed in red and green silk, 
his long queue hanging down behind, sitting in his 
beautiful barouche, while two elegant horses, with 
gold or silver-mounted harness, are driven by his 
coachman. Here comes an Englishman in his high- 



96 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

wheeled dog-cart, driving at a breakneck pace, and 
there another on a bicycle. Here come four Bengali 
gentlemen, with spotless white clothes on, heads bare, 
chains of heavy gold, studded with precious stones, 
holding their watches in a conspicuous place — carriage, 
horses, and harness to rival the viceroy's, footmen be- 
hind and coachman in front. There goes a poor Eura- 
sian family, six of them, in a tikka garrie. Look at 
the horses; they are small and poor, and the harness 
is tied together with strings. The driver from his 
lofty seat is leaning forward, making frantic motions 
with his whip, as if the whip would compensate the 
horses for the lack of grain. But the scamp does not 
intend to drive fast; he only wants you to think he is 
driving the horses at their utmost speed. Look over 
there, and you see two Parsees, erect and proud, having 
on their peculiar stovepipe hats, and just behind them 
are two Burmese, with red silk handkerchiefs tied tight 
across their foreheads. Here are some zenana mis- 
sionaries in their phaeton, and yonder two padries 
(preachers), while just beyond are two coolies, with 
large baskets on their heads, hoping a stray job may 
turn up. Scattered all through this crowd of people 
are the watermen, with their leather bags of water on 
their hips, sprinkling the streets and trying to keep the 
dust down. 

We will leave Calcutta and take a trip of two hun- 
dred miles out into the interior. We go on the broad 
turnpike road before described. We look off to the 
right and left and see a level plain, with here and there 
what appears to be a grove. If we look at this plain a 



Scenery and Sights 97 

little more closely, we find it to be cut up into an in- 
finite number of rice fields, separated from each other 
by little dams a foot high and a foot wide. The fields 
are in size from two to twenty rods square. If we pass 
along this road in the month of May, after a few show- 
ers have softened the surface, we shall see the plowmen 
at work with their primitive plows, following each 
other around the little field. Sometimes these plowmen 
are very happy, and their songs, as one after another 
takes up the refrain, and their voices rise higher and 
higher, are very pleasing. If you go along this road 
a little later, you find the farmers sowing their rice; 
and, later still, when the rains are well on and the rice 
well up, you will see them either transplanting by hand 
or plowing up by the roots that which is growing. 
The latter drops to the bottom of the water, takes new 
root, and the stock of rice is more vigorous than it 
would otherwise be. Still later you see the field dotted 
with men pulling up the tares. These men have on a 
covering for their backs and heads made of the leaf 
of the palm, which forms a protection from the rains. 
Stooping as they must to weed up the grass, nothing 
but their legs and this covering is visible. This 
makes them look like huge pelicans scattered over the 
field. Pass along this road in December, and you see 
men and women with sickles cutting the ripened grain, 
and bullocks bearing it away on their backs to the 
house. If you go to what appeared from the road to be 
a grove, you will find it to be a village — simply a cluster 
of farmhouses. Let us now enter the village along with 
the farmer, who at evening is bringing in his sheaves. 



98 India and Daily Life in Bengal 



We find that he has around his house and yard a 
hedge made of the most thorny material he can find. 
Through the opening, which is used as a gateway, his 
bullocks go, and their loads are dumped promiscuously 
around the dooryard. In this yard the rice is stacked, 
and here it is also trodden out by the bullocks after the 
harvest is all in. On the verandas of the houses a ma- 
chine is constructed called a dhinkie, by treading on 
which the women hull the rice. It works on the prin- 
ciple of a mortar and a pestle. When they press down 
with their feet the pestle is raised, and when they slip 
off their feet it drops into the mortar. Long before 
daylight, through the winter season, the sound of these 
dhinkies may be heard in every village. 

Now that we are in the village, let us look around. 
We find there is one street, perhaps ten feet wide, 
running through it. For centuries people and bul- 
locks have trodden this same narrow street, and the 
rains have washed it, and the hot winds of summer 
have sent its fine dust in clouds into the air. No 
wonder, therefore, that sometimes it is three or four 
feet lower than the houses and yards on either side. 
In the rains this street is often knee-deep with water 
and mud, with no chance to get away except by evapo- 
ration. In the yard of this farmer there may be a 
mango tree, and in the adjoining yard a tamarind, and 
in the third a cluster of bamboos. It is these trees 
which deceived you at a distance, and made you think 
you were seeing a grove. If you come to the village 
in the morning you may see a woman coming out of 
the house, bearing in her hands two earthen water- 



I '""■wtip 



A typical Bengal tank 




Mission boat 



Scenery and Sights 99 



jars. She has a dirty white cotton cloth around her 
body and over her head. At the sight of you she turns 
her head and pulls her cloth over her face, so as almost 
to hide it, and hesitates and wonders whether she 
would better go back into the house or proceed on her 
errand. You walk on with no intention of molesting 
her, and she proceeds to the village tank. Do not sup- 
pose this tank is some nice piece of stonework, and 
that a cool stream of living water is constantly pouring 
into it. It is simply a great hole dug in the ground 
by some rich gentleman, perhaps five hundred years 
ago. It is replenished from year to year by the heavy 
rains of summer. Every village must have its tank, 
for there are few wells in this part of India, and water, 
and much of it, is a necessity. 

Let us follow the woman, but at such a distance as 
not to attract her attention. She has with her two, 
and possibly three, earthen water-jars. They are 
shaped at the bottom like the larger end of an egg, and 
at the top have a mouth three inches in diameter. She 
goes to the water's edge, puts down her jars, and sits 
down herself on her heels. She then takes a green 
stick which she has brought with her, six inches long 
and half an inch thick, with one end of which she be- 
gins to scrub her teeth. The Hindus are said to be 
very clean, and cleaning the mouth is among the neces- 
sary things before eating. But she has reason to clean 
her teeth, for she has been chewing a dirty substance 
called pan, a mixture of tobacco, betel-nut, spices, and 
lime, and her teeth are black and her lips red. She 
therefore scours her teeth thoroughly, and then pro- 



100 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

ceeds to rinse her mouth. When her teeth are cleaned, 
she goes out a Httle way into the tank and takes her 
bath, for this is also a prerequisite to eating. This 
finished, she gets her water-jars, wades out a little 
farther into the tank, brushes away the dirt with her 
hand or the bottom of her jars, fills them with water, 
and takes them to the house to cook her breakfast. 
The men come in later from the field, their mouths as 
filthy and their bodies more dusty, and go through the 
same process of purification. They are then prepared 
to eat the breakfast which the tidy housewife has pre- 
pared for them. In some villages there are separate 
tanks in which to bathe, but I should say this was the 
exception rather than the rule. 

All the plains are not rice fields. Some of them are 
barren and sandy, and produce little more than thorny 
bushes, stunted grass, and huge hills of white ants, 
with here and there a solitary tree. Other places are 
quite heavily wooded, sometimes with a thick under- 
growth of vines and brambles, and sometimes not. 
Along the coast are other kinds of jungles. In these 
grow tall grass and reeds, and a kind of stunted palm, 
and the whole is covered at times with water from the 
river or tides from the sea. Here is a hiding-place for 
tigers, leopards, and hyenas. 

Large rivers are abundant, and we cross them either 
in a ferry or a rowboat in going down the great turn- 
pike road, over which we are traveling. 

Within three hundred and sixty-five miles of Cal- 
cutta is Darjiling. Between the plains of Bengal and 
the mountains of Darjiling the contrast is as great as 



Scenery and Sights 101 

can be imagined, as to both climate and scenery. 
These two places may illustrate the difference between 
the plains and the mountains in other parts of India. 
Silaguri is three hundred and fifteen miles north of 
Calcutta, and is the railroad station at the foot of the 
Himalaya Mountains. Here we take a very narrow- 
gage road, and climb the hills for a distance of forty- 
eight miles, the first forty-four of which have a grade 
of two hundred feet to the mile. For a few miles out 
of Silaguri the ascent is gradual, and the rank vegeta- 
tion reminds you that you are in a hot, damp atmos- 
phere, and on very rich soil. The trees have leaves 
almost as large as your hat, and rank vines climb up 
around them to their very top, and then reach out their 
long arms from every branch as if seeking something 
else to cling to. Sometimes they find it, and the trees 
are woven together by these huge vines. As we as- 
cend we see broad valleys filled with wild bananas, 
bamboos, and palm trees of a most luxuriant growth. 
Farther up we find mountain oaks and fern trees; 
and still higher, oats, corn, and potatoes are cultivated. 
On the broad slopes of many of these mountains there 
are tea plantations. We are greeted with the face of 
the old familiar yellow dock, and for once it seems like 
a friend. Also patches of white clover smile upon us 
here and there. This also is the very paradise for 
roses. Our flannels, which we put on at the foot of 
the hills, no longer feel too thick; but on the other 
hand, we begin to put on additional wraps, and even 
then can hardly keep warm. 

The railroad is a masterpiece of engineering. In 



102 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

some places it goes zigzag up the mountainside by 
running forward and then switching back on a higher 
grade; in other places it forms a loop at the point of 
some hill, and comes back over its own track twenty 
feet above, and then goes on up the same hillside it 
came over but a few moments before. Sometimes as it 
goes round a point you grasp the seat of the little open 
car, for it seems as if you were going to be pitched 
to the bottom of the deep gorge at your side. At 
Ghoompahar you pass the highest range on the rail- 
road, and for the next four miles the descent is gradual 
to Darjiling. This is the city where the government 
of Bengal resides in summer, and where the people 
sometimes come when worn out by the heat of the 
plains. It is seventy-five hundred feet above the level 
of the sea. The scenery here is grand beyond descrip- 
tion. There are broad valleys whose hillsides are 
dotted here and there with a village, or with primeval 
forests, tea plantations, or fields of potatoes and corn. 
There are gorges through which rushes a mountain 
stream, and high precipices over which leaps a water- 
fall. Every ravine, and gorge, and hillside produces 
very beautiful ferns, moss, and lichens. Then the 
mountains are around you on every side, and range is 
piled upon range, until the climax is reached in Kan- 
chanjanga, which sends its peak up twenty-eight thou- 
sand feet above the sea level. On a clear day this 
stands out before you, glittering in the sun like a moun- 
tain of burnished silver, and ten thousand feet of it can 
be seen lying under its thick mantle of eternal snow — a 
fit winding-sheet for a dead mountain. 




Traveling in the mountains. A dandy 




One of the soi/rrp.<: nf flip fZni 



CHAPTER XI 
Some of the Pests of India 

SOME things which we regard as pests and an- 
noyances are really blessings. So it is with 
some of those things in India which plague us. 
For the time being, however, we will take the 
superficial view, and see what things annoy us and how 
they do so. 

The white ant would no doubt be put down at the 
head of the list If this were the place I might write 
a chapter on these little animals, but I will now speak 
of them only in the briefest way. The eggs which 
produce these little creatures are laid two or three 
feet underground by a great nasty-looking white grub, 
the size of a man's little finger. When the insects are 
first hatched they are about an eighth of an inch long, 
of a creamy white appearance, and resemble a louse in 
shape. These grow to be one-fourth of an inch long, 
and then make their way through the streets, avenues, 
and halls of their colony up to the surface of the 
ground, and keep on building up until sometimes they 
have a house eight feet in diameter and ten feet high. 
They go here and there on foraging expeditions, either 
under the surface or in sealed arches, which they con- 
struct on the surface of the ground. They always 
devour everything within their reach which can be 
eaten. Since they always work in the dark, and on 

f03 



W4 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

the inside, we seldom see their mischief until it is too 
late to remedy it. If they want to eat a straw, or a 
bit of leaf which is too small for them to eat from the 
inside, they cover it with their earthy secretion and 
then devour it. They can make their way up through 
brick walls, and eat the door- jambs and wooden beams 
of the house. I have told you how the floors of the 
pucca houses are made, and yet these little creatures 
will often find a way up through the floor and get 
into our bookcase, and chests, and trunks, unless we 
keep a strict watch for them. They will sometimes 
destroy a pair of shoes in a single night if they happen 
to come across them in their search for food. 

Though they annoy us they are not an unmitigated 
evil ; in fact, they are a great blessing. For thousands 
of years they have brought up from the subsoil their 
secretion and spread it as a dressing for the soil, on 
straw, and leaf, and dead grass. When, in the begin- 
ning of the rains, they change their form and come 
from their nests by millions, it is a happy time for 
birds and fishes. They are enlarged to four or five 
times their former size when they swarm, put on wings, 
and seem happy for a brief hour. Their wings come 
off and they drop in field, or road, or ditch, or tank, 
and birds and fishes feast for once at least. 

The secretion of the white ant contains a fertilizer of 
great value, as the writer has demonstrated, and many 
a field which has nearly been abandoned to the white 
ant might become a veritable garden. 

The crows would come next. They are as nearly 
omnipresent as anything with earthly limitations can 



Some Pests of India 105 



be. The cawing of the crow very early awakens the 
villager from his sleep, and reminds the missionary 
or civilian, who may, perchance, be dreaming of home, 
that he is still in India. It is not an uncommon thing 
to see one or two crows on the back of cows or bullocks 
as they graze in the field. There seems to be some- 
thing in the skin, or lurking in the hair, which furnishes 
the crow a dainty morsel. When these same animals 
lie down, we may see the crow picking at their noses 
and inside of their ears. When the animal protests, 
the crow hops back, takes a look out of the corner of 
his eye, and watches his chance to renew the attack. 

When we feed our hens or cattle, we must look 
sharp or the crow will get more than his share. When 
the man is setting the table, a crow may perch himself 
on the top of the open door and watch the process. He 
will turn his head to one side and then to the other, to 
see how many things there are that he would be willing 
to eat. When he sees something which he would like, 
and which he thinks he could carry, he looks all around 
to see if the coast is clear; and when he satisfies him- 
self that such is the case, he swoops down, and with his 
beak or claw carries his meal up into a tree or some 
other safe place. 

One morning I bought from one of our Christian 
women some eggs, which she put on my study table. I 
was writing, and would now and again get up to go 
into another room or out of doors. I finally noticed 
that the number of eggs seemed less, but there were no 
broken shells nor any evidence that anybody had been 
in the study. Finally, a crow making off with one just 



/ 06 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

as I came into the room convinced me who was the 
thief. The crows are fond of ripe fruit of all kinds, so 
that fruit must be picked before it is fully ripe or be 
watched very closely. Woe betide you if for any rea- 
son you shoot one of these birds. In a very few mo- 
ments the air will be black with crows, flying here and 
there in a frantic manner, and cawing so loudly that 
you expect to see your neighbor come in to see what 
has happened. But even these are a blessing, for they 
are among the scavengers of the country. 

Monkeys are a pest with no redeeming quality that 
I could ever observe. There are many varieties in the 
country, and each particular place seems to have some 
different variety; but they are a nuisance be the kind 
what it may. The Hindus adore them, so their life is 
quite safe, as no person cares to kill them and incur 
the displeasure of his Hindu neighbor. In our part 
of India the large, black-faced, gray, long-tailed mon- 
key abounded. There is nothing in the fruit or vege- 
table line that these monkeys will not eat, so we must 
wage a constant war with them if we would have a 
garden or an orchard. They are exceedingly cunning. 
In the heat of the day, when they think everybody is 
taking a nap, they are after their dinner. They enter 
the garden stealthily, looking one side and the other 
as they come. When they come to a row of peas or 
anything of that kind, they stand on their hind feet, 
and with both front ones quickly fill their mouths. A 
few monkeys in half a day would utterly ruin a garden 
or strip an orchard of its fruit. They are very saucy 
at times, and even dangerous. 



Some Pests of India 107 

One day at the noon hour, while we were resting, 
one of our Httle girls came into our room screaming 
and frightened almost to death. A large monkey had 
come into the bedroom where she was sleeping, though 
it was upstairs, and taken hold of the foot of the 
bed and shaken it violently enough to wake her up. 
When she awoke, there stood that great black-faced 
fellow showing all his teeth. Hindu prejudice would 
not have kept me from shooting him if he had not left 
the room too quickly for me. They will sometimes 
dispute our right to pass along a path. In that case 
discretion is the better part of valor. Once some of 
our orphan boys at Midnapore were stoning some 
monkeys which were up in a banyan tree. One old 
fellow came down, walked up to the foremost boy, 
seized him by the shoulder with one hand and with the 
other boxed his ears. The boy was frightened badly, 
but the monkey was perfectly serene. 

Snakes are reptiles which people are not fond of as 
a rule. In this country we have an exaggerated idea of 
the snakes of India. There may be places where they 
are numerous, but I have not seen them. The cobra 
is a dangerous snake, so that Europeans generally 
carry a lantern when they go out after dark; but, after 
all, you will seldom see one. We are cautious because 
their bite is fatal. I have been around a good deal in 
Orissa and Bengal, and have not in fifteen years seen 
more than ten or fifteen cobras running at large. 

There are some centipedes and a few scorpions, but 
with care one need experience no harm from them. 
Only once in the fifteen years I have been in India, was 



108 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

I bitten by any of these poisonous creatures, and that 
was by a centipede which was in my hat. He had 
secreted himself within the walls of my sun-hat, and I 
did not know he was there until he informed me. 

We never really know why dogs are spoken of in 
Scripture as being among the vile things which shall 
never enter the gates of the beautiful city until we 
visit the Orient. There is not a redeeming quality 
about a dog here. You could not by any possibility in- 
duce one to drive out a cow or a monkey from the 
garden. He never did such a thing in his life, and 
would be astonished at you if you should try to have 
him do such a thing. The more you tried to have him, 
the more he would go in the opposite direction. The 
dogs here are nearly all of one kind — yellow or black 
in color, with hair short and straight, nose pointed, 
forehead very receding, head and tail drooping, lean, 
surly, and often scabby. They never have a pleasant 
face or a wag of the tail for anybody. They leisurely 
walk about the streets and bazaars, and even into our 
houses, ready to pick up any stray morsel of food. 

The natives have a way of raising their hands as 
if they would strike them, but as they seldom do the 
dogs care very little for these false motions. When 
we try to frighten them away in the same manner, they 
simply stand and stare at us. When, however, we can 
convince them by a whack with our cane that we are 
not making false motions, they can yelp and howl as 
loudly as any dog. Their bark at night is anything 
but soothing, and especially if a person is inclined, 
through fever or nervousness, to be wakeful. One 




A Bengal barber zvho has found a job 




!W« .Iff 




■flHHHHk 



-r t , 



A sacred bidl, Moliadabe 



Some Pests of India 1 09 



barks, and then another and another, until you think 
they are barking for a prize, and the one that can bark 
the loudest and longest gets it. The bark is not really 
a bark such as we hear in this country, but more of 
a howl. They do something of the work of the scav- 
engers, but the jackals could do that better and save 
the annoyances the dogs bring. Many of them are 
owned by no one. The Hindus never kill anything, so 
of course the dogs are allowed to multiply as much as 
they like. The government recognizes them as a nui- 
sance, and very wisely puts a bounty on their heads. 
Once a year the low-caste people (maters) in some dis- 
tricts set apart a day for killing dogs. They will take 
a large bamboo club which they hold by both hands, 
allowing it to hang down their backs. In this way 
they walk about the streets and bazaars. The dog sees 
nothing of the club, as they manage to keep their faces 
toward him. They wait until his attention is taken up 
by something to eat or smell, when they suddenly bring 
the club down with great force on the neck of the un- 
suspecting animal, and he soon dies. 

The Brahmani bull may be classed among the pests. 
Some one, perhaps on account of some peculiar mark- 
ings, has in his early days devoted him to the calling 
of a sacred bull, and so he has wandered about through 
the streets, belonging to no one in particular and to 
every one in general. He usually is found around the 
temple, and goes in and out at pleasure. He goes into 
the green rice fields, or to the shop where grain is 
kept, and helps himself. He of course is always fat 
and saucy. If he sees in the garden of some Euro- 



no India and Daily Life in Bengal 

pean some choice heads of cabbage, he forms his plans 
for a feast when the shades of night shall settle down. 
One of these animals persistently visited our garden 
in the middle of the night, until finally, upon the ad- 
vice of the magistrate, we captured him and made him 
over to the city. His lordship was greatly humbled 
when he had to come down to drawing cart loads of 
garbage. 

There are some other things which greatly annoy 
us, but which are not peculiar to India except, per- 
haps, that they flourish there to a greater extent. 
Among these are the little red ant, the mosquito, lice, 
bedbugs, and fleas. Some of these, more or less, are 
liable to prey upon us the year round. Every Euro- 
pean, all the year, provides himself with a mosquito 
curtain for his bed. This protects him fully from the 
mosquito, unless some member of the body happens to 
be against it, but unfortunately affords no protection 
against the other insufferable insects. 

In some places tigers and leopards are quite abun- 
dant. These destroy cattle, and sometimes human life, 
though as a rule they do not molest people, unless 
sorely pressed by hunger, but run from them as do all 
other wild animals. The bear is very fond of sugar- 
cane, and comes from the jungles to help himself dur- 
ing the season. In a few places wild elephants commit 
depredations now and again. After all, these things 
sound a good deal worse than the actual experience 
with them really is. 

Perhaps we could hardly class insane people with 
pests, and yet this will be as good a place as any to say 



Some Pests of India III 



that these are left to wander about at will. There are 
a few asylums, but rarely are persons committed. 
There is, however, no such proportion of insane as in 
this country. If there were the land would be a veri- 
table gehenna. 

The same is true of lepers. These go here and there,* 
and even engage in trade and sit on the verandas of 
people's houses. For these there are a very few asylums 
also, but no law for segregation. To accomplish this 
would be beyond the power of the government. 



H 



CHAPTER XII 
Some Characteristics of the Natives 

DIFFERENT parts of India, no doubt, produce 
different types of men, but what I shall say 
will be of the Bengali as I have observed him. 
He is exceedingly polite and, as a rule, does 
not want to say anything which he thinks you will 
not want to hear. This leads him many times into 
telling what we call lies, though he does not define a 
lie in that way. As an example : Suppose you are go- 
ing along a strange road, and inquire of a man the 
distance to a certain place. He naturally thinks you 
want that distance to be as little as possible, so he 
tells you it is two miles when he knows it is six; or, 
he may raise his chin in the direction of the place and 
say it is just in sight, when It is four miles away. For 
this same reason he seldom disagrees with you. If he 
cannot really assent he will keep quiet. In a public 
way some of them are fond of discussion, but in their 
homes they seldom oppose you. This disposition 
makes you feel that you can seldom depend on what 
they say. When we were trying to get land to erect 
a mission house in Contai, I went to see the sub- 
divisional officer, and told him what we wanted to do. 
He said that he was delighted that we were coming, 
that Contai was a wicked place and needed something 
of the kind, and he would be pleased to assist in any 
112 



Some Characteristics 1 13 



way that lay in his power. I thanked him very 
heartily, but was sure all the time he would not help, 
but hinder. And so the sequel proved; for we had 
to get help from the English magistrate or impedi- 
ments would have been placed in our way all along, 
and we would never have gone to Contai. We call 
this kind of talk lying, but they define a lie as mean- 
ing something like this : If I tell you something, and 
you sustain financial loss through my untrue state- 
ment, that is a lie ; but if I tell you the distance is two 
miles when it is four, that is no lie, for you would 
have to travel over the distance whether it was two or 
four miles. Their saying it was two miles did not 
cause me any additional travel. This disposition to 
please is prominent when self-interest is not involved. 
Always put this down as an exception to every rule. 
According to our ideas, the native is a very untruth- 
ful man. Doctor Pentecost made this statement, 
though in little stronger terms, and was taken to task 
by the native press for it. I think Doctor Pentecost 
was not far wrong. If I had had no experience myself, 
the attitude of the people toward each other would con- 
vince me of this. They seldom trust each other's word. 
In matters of business they have so little confidence in 
each other, that a bargain is considered of no value 
until money has exchanged hands. A man may agree 
to do a thing, but if you have given him no money he 
considers himself under no obligation to do it. They 
say of us sometimes, " You are very green," because 
we trust their word, and that we ought to know that 
all men are liars. I do not say that they are all vicious 



114 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

liars, but the tendency is so much to conceal, and there 
is so much want of frankness, that it is unsafe to de- 
pend upon their word. Out of this has grown their 
way of answering a question. We seldom hear them 
answer a question direct. Almost always it is an- 
swered by asking another. You say to a man, " Will 
you buy this cow? " '* Where would I get money to 
buy a cow?" he would answer. Or you say, ''You 
did not come to work yesterday?" He would reply, 
"How could a man work who had a fever?" This 
sounds impertinent, and is very trying at first, but you 
find this is their way of answering questions. The 
manner in which they can ask and answer questions 
without fully committing themselves, is simply mar- 
velous to the people of the blunt, plain, practical nature 
of the Anglo-Saxon. 

In matters of deal they are without a conscience. 
The limit they will ask for a thing is the amount they 
think they can get for it, regardless of its market 
value. This is nearly a universal rule. We think 
a man a Jew here if he add twenty-five per cent to his 
real selling price, but it is not an uncommon thing 
for them to ask three hundred per cent more than 
they expect to take. This is especially true if they 
think you do not know the real price, or if you are so 
situated that they know you must buy. The general 
rule is that they ask you just double what they in the 
end expect to take. They are very shrewd in bar- 
gains, and resort to many tricks to make a few cents. 
They can adulterate equal to the Yankee in some 
things. Water goes in milk, small gravel in rice, and 



Some Characteristics 115 



sand in sugar. They can fill their native fabrics with 
starch, and put putty in defective furniture. They 
have studied the art for centuries, and according to the 
number of their products will not be outdone by any 
other nation. If they are very untruthful, they also 
have a faculty of getting out when caught in a lie as 
easily as can be. In fact, it is almost impossible to 
prove a falsehood on any of them. You may think 
you have a chain of evidence that will surely convict 
the man of a wilful, deliberate lie, but you find your 
chain a rope of sand, and you are left in the dilemma 
rather than the man that has lied, even though your 
own eyes form part of the evidence. 

They have very little inventive genius, and hence 
are no organizers. They are imitators, and can make 
almost everything if you give them a pattern. We 
find them in machine shops making engines, and in 
various vocations where one would think genius was 
required; but they work from patterns. They have 
had armies large enough to have annihilated the Eng- 
lish, but could not plan a battle. They can run steam- 
boats and railroad trains, but they can go only so far 
as they have learned. If the unexpected arises they 
are in a dilemma. If a cartman break the axle of 
his cart when he does not happen to have another 
with him, he will squat dow^n and put a sheet over his 
head, if it be winter, and there he will sit for hours 
waiting for something to turn up. He really does 
not know what to do, and it takes several hours for 
the idea to get through his head that he must go to 
some village and hunt up another axle. 



116 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

Revenge is a disposition abnormally cultivated, and 
it lurks in the bosom where you least suspect it. A 
family feud is handed down fourteen generations. 
For the sake of getting revenge for a trifling injury, 
they will jeopardize a person's life. Sometimes they 
will set fire to one's house, and the roof being of straw 
it may happen that the inmates cannot escape, but are 
consumed in the burning building; and if they escape, 
their all is gone in the loss of their home. The most 
serious charges are brought in court for the sake of 
being revenged over some real or fancied injury. 

The Hindus are proverbial for going to law. Two 
things actuate them : one is the desire for revenge and 
the other the love of distinction. Just opposite our 
house in Balasore were two courthouses, in which 
there were at least five places where cases might be 
tried. These courts were filled the year round. Not 
that all the courts were in session all the time, but some 
of them were, and often three or four of them. Aside 
from these, the judge came occasionally to hold 
criminal courts of a higher grade in the circuit house. 
From morning until night, week in and week out, the 
cry of the crier could be heard as he called out the 
name of parties in the case, or the name of some wit- 
ness. A man hardly thinks he belongs to a respectable 
family unless he can boast of at least one long-drawn- 
out lawsuit. I shall remember a long time a conver- 
sation I had with one of our new converts. He had 
been a poor man and common laborer, but had married 
a woman who also had employment. The two re- 
ceived a good salary, so that he could lay by a dollar 



Some Characteristics 117 

a month. He had been working for me, but did not 
come for some days. Finally, when he came, I asked 
him why he had not come the past week. He straight- 
ened up as if he were a man of a great deal of impor- 
tance and said, " Sahib, I have a lawsuit on hand." 
The inconvenience the people suffer on account of 
these cases is very great. They will walk twenty or 
thirty miles to be present on the appointed day for 
their suit, and then wait perhaps two or three days for 
their case to be called up. They have little money to 
use, and many times have hard fare during the days 
of waiting. Especially is this true in the case of 
many witnesses. When the case is called, for some 
trivial reason it is postponed ten days or a month, when 
all wend their way home, to return again on the ap- 
pointed day. Then, again, it may be postponed, and 
so on it goes month after month, until sometimes a 
whole year is consumed in this kind of work. The 
satisfaction that each party gets out of it is, that the 
other party suffers as much through these long jour- 
neys and tedious waitings as they. Every time the 
case is postponed there is an additional cost. 

The lawyers have a habit of receiving a fee from 
each side. I think this is peculiar to India. If they 
are in a lawsuit, they think if they can fee their op- 
ponent's lawyer with a larger amount than he can, the 
lawyer will be more interested in their case than he 
will in the case of his client. 

The people have a way not only of assuming that 
they are innocent until proven guilty, but of actually 
thinking they are innocent. When an accusation is 



118 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

fully proven they confess, but are very careful to con- 
fess only what has been proven. When they confess 
and ask forgiveness, and you assure them that they 
are forgiven, they think that the forgiveness wipes 
out not only the guilt but the deed itself, and restores 
them to the position they were in before the sin was 
committed. Often have I seen great surprise ex- 
pressed when I have refused to restore to some per- 
son the work in which he had shown himself to be 
a defaulter. 

The people are slaves to custom. All that need be 
said by you as a reason for doing what you do is, 
" This is our custom." This puts a stop to any argu- 
ment. You will very seldom hear any other reason 
given for doing anything. This of course obstructs 
all progress. I was very well acquainted with a native 
judge in Midnapore, and had frequent conversations 
with him on different subjects. He was a well-edu- 
cated man, and spoke English fluently. I asked him 
one day what his opinion was in regard to child mar- 
riage. He could not speak too strongly against it. 
He was sure the race was enfeebled by it, the mortality 
of the country increased, and a great deal of mental 
and physical suffering inflicted on the young child 
wife. I knew the judge had two or three young 
daughters, so I said, " Judge, you are not going to 
conform to the custom, are you? You know what is 
right; I hope you will follow your convictions and set 
your countrymen an example." He said, '' This is our 
custom, and what can one man do to oppose it? If I 
would not marry off my daughters at the proper time 



Some Characteristics 119 



I should be in disgrace, and as I could not endure this 
I must do as the rest do." I said, a little warmly, 
" Judge, if a man like you, with both a knowledge of 
what you ought to do, and a social position that would 
help you greatly if you attempted any reform, and 
also with independent means, will not follow your con- 
victions, who do you expect will lead in reforms?" 
He confessed he ought to, but could not. The posi- 
tion of this gentleman is the position of many. Many 
of them would be glad to break away from their cus- 
toms, in some things, but they bind them as with a 
chain of steel. 

Yet, after all, how much are Americans different? 
We say what we would do if we were in their place, 
but would we? Our women must wear high-heeled 
shoes, though it is as injurious to health as the bind- 
ing of the feet of the women of China. Fashion points 
the way, and we all walk in it whether we want to or 
not. There and here we need reformers who have the 
courage to withstand bad customs. 

The people are very fond of display. This is shown 
in the case of the rich by the number of servants they 
can keep, the gold jewelry and precious stones they can 
wear, and the dash and glitter of their turnouts as 
they go for a drive. It is seen in the poor by the 
amount of jewelry they put on, even if made of shell, 
lac, glass, or brass. They think the clanking of the 
heavy pieces of their jewelry denotes about as much 
distinction as some of our ladies do by the rustling of 
their silks. On great festival days the streets are bril- 
liant with red and yellow garments of the women. 



120 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

They make garlands of large red and yellow flowers 
to festoon their houses and adorn their persons. 

The average native is a hard-working man. Many 
think because they live in a warm climate, they are 
like the African or other tribes who will only work 
when compelled to, but such is not the case. Indeed, 
they often work under circumstances that would try 
the pluck of many an American. It is true they are 
" to the manner born," and can endure heat that the 
European cannot, but still the heat affects them, and 
the cold even more. In the hot months they will get 
up and start on their journey at two o'clock in the 
morning. This is a regular custom among cartmen 
and pilgrims. Very early in the morning, also, you 
will find them in their fields. It is true there are lazy 
people there as here, but they are the exception. 

They are a frugal people ; they love to make a dis- 
play, it is true, but that is only on occasions. They 
have big dinners for friends and kinsmen, but these 
are not frequent. Ordinarily their meals are of the 
plainest kind, and their dress of but little expense. 
Though most of them are poor, they try very hard to 
lay by something for a time of still sorer need. This 
is not laid by in money, but jewelry, which can always 
be sold for the market value of the gold or silver it 
contains. They will pinch themselves, and almost 
starve before they will draw on their little store laid by. 

Many of them are very anxious for an education, 
and especially an English education. In Madras many 
of the common coolies can speak English fairly well, 
and in Calcutta almost all native merchants have a fair 



Some Characteristics 12/ 



knowledge of English. They are also very fond of 
airing their English, and some use it very amusingly, 
as the following letter, written by a Bengali babu to 
Dr. O. R. Bachelor, of Midnapore, will show: 

My Dear Godfather: My registered note addressed to your 
name has been sent by post to Midnapore during you had 
gone to America. An answer which gave by Mr. Z. F. 
Griffin gave me much sorrow, for your answer reached me at 
that time. In the November last an information has been 
given me by Mr. Coldren at Balasore of your returning from 
there to Midnapore. Therefore I send this registered note 
for your answer. It is proposed by many learned and gen- 
tlemen of your kindness to helpless men in their wants, de- 
pending on their saying, I am going most respectfully to in- 
form you my want. I have descended from a Hindu tribe; 
forty-five years of my age, my mother was put at the point 
of death. My father is always unkind and surly fellow. . , 
You will be remarkable to the story of my much above men- 
tioned that his principle duty is that his sons will be dunce. . . 
My godfather, you shall have tried to get post under the 
police and postal department. I hope if you kindly recom- 
mend the superintendent of these offices, they must appoint 
me at any post of my worthy. It is very important to let you 
know that you should not hate me though being a Hindu. I 
am going to wait your true refuge. I may be baptized after 
which if I will be had any post under my office. If you please 
and kindly try get me a post without preachership, I will be 
baptized unless I cannot. . . 

I am your dear godson, 



They do not care for know^ledge so much for its 
own sake as for what it will bring to them financially. 
The great ambition is to pass the entrance examination 
in the university, or to try to pass. They will boast 
as loudly of having tried and failed, as of having tried 



122 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

and succeeded. After passing and receiving an ap- 
pointment, they seem to think they have reached the 
goal. They seldom continue any course of study, but 
pass their time after office hours in conversation or 
games. 

They have remarkable memories. Away back, thou- 
sands of years ago, they learned their sacred books 
and handed down the contents by memory, and that 
has to some extent been kept up all through the cen- 
turies. The priests begin very early in life to commit 
the shasters, and they can sing for hours from memory 
the verses of some of their poetical writings. The 
whole nation has been developed along that line, for 
those who could not read or write have had to depend 
on their memory for their knowledge of facts. 

They are an eloquent, poetical people. Their imagi- 
nation is vivid, and their language being rich in words 
they find no trouble in giving expression to their 
thoughts. Some people in America who listened to the 
addresses of the representatives of the Hindu religion 
and the Brahmo-Somaj at the World's Parliament of 
Religions, can testify to this fact. Some of the most 
eloquent men I have ever heard are natives of India. 
They are very quick to see a point, even though the 
thought be covered by the words of a parable or a com- 
parison. Even the most ignorant have not only a 
poetical turn of mind, but can also understand the 
point in an argument. Being not overscrupulous as to 
the exact facts, they can embellish a narrative and 
make it very telling. 

They are great lovers of home. If a person were 



Some Characteristics 123 

simply to pass through the country and observe the 
number of people away from home, either for the sake 
of work or on a religious pilgrimage, he would at 
once think these people care nothing for home. But 
they do. It is true they have no such homes as we 
have; where husband, wife, and children come around 
the same table or hearthstone, figuratively speaking, 
yet the wife loves her husband, and in many cases he is 
no doubt fond of her. The mother also loves her chil- 
dren, and the children the mother. It is a great trial 
to the family when the little wife, ten or eleven years 
of age, is taken from the home of her father and 
mother. It is also a trial when they start off on their 
long religious pilgrimage. They well know that the 
chances are they may never return, so as they take the 
last look at the old home, even though it be humble, it 
is with many a heartache. It is often difficult to get 
them to leave the place of their birth, even though they 
may better their condition by so doing. Often only 
when hunger stares them in the face can they be in- 
duced to do so. 

Another very commendable custom is the way they 
have of providing for their joint families. This does 
not beget the greatest enterprise, but provides a home 
and food for the indolent, the unfortunate, or the un- 
employed in the family. If a man has half a score of 
sons, each one brings his wife to his father's house, and 
here they all live from a common purse. If only one 
in the ten has employment, he will cheerfully hand over 
his wages each month to his mother, who is queen in 
her realm — the house. Sometimes as many as a hun- 



124 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

dred persons have a common home, and no one of the 
hundred will want as long as any one of the number 
has anything to divide. 

The Hindus are a very devotional people. They 
expect every man to have a religion as much as a 
nationality. With them it matters little what their 
morals may be, but they are still religious. Every 
man must do certain things in the religious line when 
these things are demanded, and if he be a good ortho- 
dox Hindu there are many duties to perform. They 
make him observe certain days, and send him on long 
pilgrimages, and make him give of his substance, 
though that may be but little. It matters not what the 
demand, he must comply. Visit Muttra, Brindaban, 
Benares, Hurdwar, Puri, and a hundred other shrines, 
and you will be convinced that the Hindu is a very re- 
ligious man. 

He is master of the art of disorganization. It seems 
impossible for him to grasp the idea of organization. 
This may account for many things in his history. 

To illustrate : It was my misfortune to have a good 
deal of building to do, and especially during our last 
term. It is true I had a foreman who was supposed to 
look after the work, but he was also a native. I knew 
their weakness, so happened around as often as possi- 
ble. Sometimes I had as many as forty people at work. 
I would often find the masons standing for want of 
material. Too many carrying brick and too few mor- 
tar. I would readjust matters and get all running like 
clockwork. If I should go away and come back after 
an hour, I would find all my arrangements upset. In 



Some Characteristics 125 



every walk of life you see this cropping out. Things 
are done by the slowest and hardest methods. 

Perhaps there is no one trait of character which 
gives the missionaries more real heartache than the 
ingratitude of the people. It was my duty to feed 
famine sufferers for nearly three months, and also to 
care for famine relief works, and the amount of work 
which such things involve is not a little, and the an- 
noyance, and at times really sickening experiences, are 
not a few. In both of these measures I took the 
initiative, and yet no manifestation of gratitude on the 
part of any of these did I see. 

At different times, in trying to shield persons from 
the oppression of others, I have not only done a lot 
of work, but at times been to considerable expense and 
annoyance, but with no apparent response. Doctor 
McDonald tells us in one of his books, that the rea- 
son is the Hindu believes that there is no such thing 
as disinterested kindness, and if you do a kindness 
you are only paying a debt contracted in some previous 
existence, and therefore there is no occasion for grati- 
tude. 



CHAPTER XIII 

Occupations 

I AM often asked, " What do the people do ? " That 
question cannot be answered in a single sentence. 
If we would see them as they are, we must glance 
at their separate occupations. The largest class 
in Bengal are farmers. Only five out of every hun- 
dred live in the cities. When we remember that in 
England sixty-six, and in America twenty-two out of 
each hundred live in towns and cities, we see more 
clearly the rural nature of the Indian people. I have 
told you something of what these farmers produce. 
They require but a few tools to do their work. A plow 
with a single handle, a sickle, a heavy, short-handled 
hoe, and a yoke of bullocks, are about all that is neces- 
sary. If they need to irrigate the land, a few more 
things are required. If they irrigate from a tank or 
a river, a scoop is made of woven bamboo splints. On 
each side of this a rope is attached, by means of which 
two men raise the water, simply by a sort of swinging 
motion. If it needs to be raised higher, sometimes a 
sweep is constructed. 

In northern India thousands of wells furnish the 
water for irrigation. Bullocks raise the water from 
them. These are exclusive of the many irrigation 
canals. Bullocks plow the fields, carry in most of the 
grain, tread it out, and carry both straw and rice to 
126 



Occupations 127 

market on their backs. With these diverse duties, the 
farmer hardly has the last of his straw carried off 
before he has to begin plowing again. 

Landholders are men whose forefathers had large 
estates, which the government has allowed them to 
keep by paying a certain annual land rent. These 
landlords do not work their own land, but let it to ten- 
ants. The former live on the fat of the land, and 
many of them have been very oppressive. 

There are many who cultivate no land, but live by 
working here and there as they can find a day's work. 
These are called coolies, and their pay is about five 
cents a day, and they board themselves. The ambition 
of nearly every country coolie is to get a piece of land 
which he can call his own, though in reality no person 
can absolutely own land in India. Many small farm- 
ers do coolie work when they can get it to do. 

There are in the bazaars manufacturers of different 
kinds. No steam or water-power is employed, but all 
work is done by men, women, or bullocks. Large 
quantities of brass are used in dishes. This is melted 
and run into a mold of the required shape, after which 
the articles are cut and polished. Some very nice work 
is done in this way, and some beautiful Carved brass- 
work is turned out from Benares, Moradabad, and 
other places. 

The people are very fond of jewelry, and often hoard 
their money in this way, so there are many goldsmiths 
and silversmiths in the country. Very little gold is in 
circulation in India, and the reason assigned is that 
every gold coin is at once locked up in jewelry. These 



128 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

smiths, with a hollow bamboo branch for a blowpipe, 
a pot of charcoal, a file, and a pair of pincers, and 
two or three other rude instruments, will melt the gold 
and silver and fashion it as you wish. Some of the 
finest work in the world in these metals is done in 
India. One peculiarity of these smiths is that they 
can blow a constant blast of wind through their blow- 
pipe. The breath enters the nose, goes into the lungs, 
and out of the mouth in a constant circuit. This may 
seem incredible because we cannot do it. But they 
can, and do. 

The blacksmith sits on his heels and pounds out his 
wares; i. e., what of them he doesn't burn up. He is 
not the man who shoes the horses and bullocks. He 
makes the shoes and another tradesman comes to the 
stable to put them on. He is a little too high up in the 
social scale to blow his own bellows, so another man 
sits on his heels to blow the bellows. A blacksmith 
shop can be improvised any time inside of half an 
hour under a tree. The bellows consists of two goat- 
skins, with two flat strips of wood, sixteen inches long, 
so fastened to each skin that when the man takes hold 
of one, by putting his thumb over one strip and his 
fingers over the other, he can open it. When he opens 
it, of course the air rushes in, and he blows it out 
through an iron nozzle at the other end by closing his 
hand and pressing down on the skin. He has two 
skins which he alternately opens and closes, so making 
a constant blowing at the fire where these nozzles 
come together. To make the place for the fire, all that 
is needed is a little stiff mud plastered around the 



Occupations 129 

nozzles of the bellows and a heavy stone to hold them 
down. With a basket of charcoal, a heavy piece of 
iron for an anvil, a pair of tongs, and a hammer, he is 
equipped for business. I was rude enough to laugh 
outright the first time I saw a blacksmith at work. 

When a brick-mason begins a job, his first work 
probably will be to make his brick. When taken from 
the mold that holds but a single brick, they are spread 
around upon the grass to dry. When enough are dry 
they prepare to burn them. This is not done as we 
burn brick. They make as many walls a foot high and 
eight inches thick as they want arches. These walls 
are as long as the kiln is to be wide, and about fifteen 
inches apart. Into this open place, between these sev- 
eral little walls, they put dry firewood. Now they be- 
gin to build up the rest of the kiln, putting the bricks 
over the wood in such a way that they will not fall 
when the wood burns out. So it goes clear to the top, 
mixing together brick and wood. Sometimes they put 
in pieces of logs, eighteen inches in diameter. When 
it is all laid up, fire is set to the fine wood below, and 
inside of twenty-four hours all of the wood in the kiln 
is ablaze. When the wood is consumed the bricks are 
burned. 

The brick-mason next prepares his lime. First in 
order is to have the stone. In our part of India this 
was simply nuggets of limestone, called gingta, and 
was usually gathered by women. They find it lying 
around in waste places and in ditches. It is not found 
in all places, and the supply, even where it is found, 
may become exhausted, so at times it must be brought 



130 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

long distances in carts or otherwise. After the gingta 
is gathered it must be burned. For this purpose a 
round kiln is made from four to eight feet in diameter, 
four or five feet high, and open at the top. In order to 
have a draft, two or three openings are left in the wall 
at the bottom. First a little straw and dry wood are 
put in, then three baskets of charcoal and one of 
gingta. In this proportion the charcoal and lime are 
put, until the kiln is full, when it is set on fire. When 
the charcoal is consumed the lime is burned. Wood 
may be used instead of charcoal, but more is required. 
One strange thing about the burning of brick and lime, 
is that these masons will not set fire to their lime-kilns 
nor their brick-kilns. They say the fire will destroy 
life in the lime and the brick, and they must not take 
life. They are consistent enough to cause some one 
of a lower caste to start the fire. 

Walls are laid somewhat as they are in America, 
only very slowly, and with a great deal of water. The 
masons have a little straw wisp beside them and a jar 
of water. These are used every now and again in 
sprinkling the walls. Often a course of brick is laid 
on the outside and inside of the wall, and the place be- 
tween is filled with water, which is allowed to remain 
until absorbed by the brick, while they work upon some 
other part of the wall or retire for a smoke. May this 
not account for the fact that their buildings will some- 
times stand for more than a thousand years? They 
make beautiful cornices and all kinds of stucco-work 
with this lime. It is hardly necessary to add that 
they take their time to do a job. The wages of a 




Bringing pottery to market 




The boy zvho herds cattle 



Occupations 131 

brickmason in the country districts is from eight to ten 
cents a day, and he boards himself. 

The making of pottery is an important industry. 
Water is brought in earthen jars, people cook in them 
and use them in various other ways. The material is 
coarse and the construction rude, still they answer 
their purpose. These craftsmen, like all others, sit 
on their heels to do their work. A great deal of this 
pottery is wasted, and caste is accountable for part 
of it. Many of the pilgrims buy a little half-cent or 
quarter-cent earthen dish to cook their rice in, and 
after dinner either throw it down and break it, or 
leave it by the tree or rest-house where they were. We 
might think that the next man who came along and 
wanted to boil his rice would pick up one of the dishes 
and wash it and use it. But he does not. He doesn't 
know what low-caste man may have used it, so he 
proceeds to buy one for himself. In this way millions 
of earthen jars are destroyed. They have a custom 
also of breaking, once a year, all vessels in their houses 
made of this material. Almost any day you may see 
men and women bringing great loads of earthen jars 
to market. 

Weaving is accomplished by means of the rudest kind 
of tools, and is all done by hand. I am not speak- 
ing of cotton and jute mills established by English 
capital, but of natives as they work. The thread is 
prepared after the most primitive methods, and is 
then stretched under a tree the length which the piece 
of cloth is to be. Under this tree it is often woven. 
The natives make all kinds of cloth (chiefly of cotton). 



132 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

from the coarse and strong, such as is worn by the 
Santals, to the fine worn by the higher-caste women. 
Tussar-silk, made from cocoons found in the jungles, 
is one of the industries. How they can make such fine 
fabrics as they do with their rude tools is a mystery. 
In the vicinity of the Himalaya Mountains a good 
deal of coarse woolen goods is made, and Cashmere 
is noted for the finest shawls in the world. The hand- 
looms of India cannot compete with the steam looms 
of Manchester, so that weaving does not furnish the 
occupation for the people which it once did. Many 
who now weave their own cloth buy Manchester yarn. 
A very low-caste people are the shoemakers, who are 
also the tanners. Animals which die are skinned by 
the sweepers, and their skins are taken to the shoe- 
makers. These also get skins from the Mohammedan 
butchers. They tan them by making them into a big 
bag, and filling these with a liquid made from barks of 
different kinds steeped in water. The skins in this 
way are suspended over a large earthen vessel into 
which they drip. They make some pretty good leather, 
but it has the peculiar property of shrinking rather 
than stretching with use. If our shoe fits us nicely 
when it is new, we m.ay be sure it will be too small after 
a few months. If we wish to have one of these country 
shoemakers make us a pair of shoes, we call him to our 
house. When he gets ready he comes, and takes for a 
measure a strip of paper. He cuts this off, making it 
the length of our foot. Then he measures the instep 
with the same piece of paper, tearing the edge to make 
the mark. We ask him when he will have the shoes 



Occupations 133 

done, and he tells us, " Day after to-morrow." He 
stands around as if he were not quite ready to go, and 
we ask him what more he wants. " I want a little 
money for expenses," he says. If we don't know the 
custom of the country, we perhaps may tell him that 
when he gets his work done we will pay him ; but if we 
do know the custom, we will know that we must give 
him something in advance or we will never get our 
work done. We may refuse to give it to him, and he 
may promise to do the work, but it is probable that he 
will not do it. If we do give him a little money in 
advance, he does the work when he gets ready. Only 
after one has lived in India a few years can he under- 
stand the expression, " Lie like a shoemaker." Have 
plenty of patience and perseverance, and we will get 
our shoes after a while. 

There are merchants of all kinds. If, for instance, 
you should go down the streets of Balasore or Mid- 
napore, you would see a line of shops on either side of 
the road. These are all small and but one story high. 
Some of them are pucca and some mud houses. The 
man who sells goods usually sits on a grass mat on 
the floor, or on a large low table. He may have beside 
him a large cushion on which to recline. If he can get 
the article you wish without getting up, he will do so ; 
if not, he will get up. You would find one man selling 
cloth of various kinds; another, different kinds of oils 
— as kerosene oil, from both Russia and America, cas- 
tor oil, cocoanut oil, mustard oil, and various other 
kinds of a coarser nature, which the natives eat and 
which they also use to rub on their bodies in the winter 



134 India and Daily Life in Bengal 



season before bathing. This man would also have 
rosin, gums, and paint. The next man perhaps would 
sell candies, which he makes on the spot from sugar, 
flour, melted butter, and sour milk. With one or 
more of these four articles, and a few spices in differ- 
ent combinations and in different ways, he will make 
a great variety of sweets. The next man may have a 
shop for English goods. He keeps a little of almost 
everything, even though his shop is but eight feet by 
ten. We may go and inquire for something which 
we don't expect to find short of Calcutta, and as likely 
as not he will find the very thing we are after in some 
dusty corner. The next man has grains of all kinds — 
as rice, wheat, and dal of different varieties. The peo- 
ple are very fond of parched rice, so this is found in 
many shops. They make it by putting a certain kind 
of rice in an earthen jar, building a brisk fire under it, 
and stirring it with a broom splint while it is popping. 
Sometimes they put molasses with it and roll it into 
balls. It is very palatable when fresh. 

There are persons also lounging around courthouses 
whose only occupation is giving testimony in court. 
For twenty-five cents you can hire them to swear to 
anything you desire. In the census returns of 1890, 
a large number gave this as their only occupation. 
Little justice is found in the courts; for, in the first 
place, you cannot believe the testimony. A magistrate 
in Balasore told me he never pretended to believe the 
witnesses. He simply listened to both sides, and then 
made up his mind to what he thought might be prob- 
able. There is also little doubt that many of the native 



Occupations 135 

magistrates will accept bribes in one way or another. 
English officials do their best to prevent bribery and 
corruption, but the tide is very strong in the other 
direction. 

The boatmen are quite a numerous class in Bengal. 
Thousands of them live in their boats. They may have 
some other place they call home, but most of their time 
is spent on their boats. At a point above the Howrah 
Bridge, a hundred and twenty thousand boats pass in 
a single year. They handle their boats very skilful- 
ly, and sometimes recklessly. I was going up on the 
steamship Bassein once, and as we neared Calcutta we 
saw a native rowboat coming toward us as if it would 
pass in front of us. I feared, as I saw them coming, 
that they had mistaken our speed, and so it was, for 
instead of passing in front they struck our side wheel 
and instantly their boat was in splinters. They swim 
like ducks, and no one was lost. I was told afterward 
by the captain that they got a good sum of money for 
damages. Also I was told that it is not an uncommon 
occurrence. When a boat is about worn out, they 
sometimes manage to have it struck by a passing 
steamer. Of course no one could prove that it was 
purposely done. While we find no native sailors who 
are Hindus on English ships, wx find plenty of Hindus 
on their own boats. Mohammedan sailors are found 
in large numbers on European ships. They are treach- 
erous and cowardly in a dangerous storm, and cannot 
be depended on in an emergency. Though they are 
skilful in running their own boats, they sometimes give 
us trouble when they run our mission boats by what 



136 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

we used to think was their stupidity. Their pretended 
stupidity is often a deliberate plan to secure some ad- 
vantage to themselves. 

In Orissa there are many tidal rivers, and the coast 
canal crosses all these. At all these river crossings 
there are locks, which must be entered while there is 
plenty of water in the river. Sometimes in crossing 
they would delay the boat through various pretexts, 
until they were just too late to enter the lock on the 
opposite side. This would secure a rest to them until 
the next tide came in. You might be greatly incon- 
venienced by the delay, but it mattered little to them. 
Here, again, you have a chance to exercise the grace of 
patience. 

We must not overlook the mahajan. The word 
literally means '' great man," and so he is. He is the 
money-lender. This may be his sole occupation, or he 
may do this in connection with some other business. 
Sometimes goldsmiths are money-lenders. The regu- 
lar rate of interest among the natives is two pice on 
a rupee per month. As there are sixty-four pice in a 
rupee, two pice a month would be one-thirty-second 
of the principal per month, or nearly forty per cent 
per year. It is little wonder that when a poor man gets 
into the hands of a money-lender he is often there for 
life, and sometimes becomes not much less than a slave 
to him. The note given is equal to a chattel mortgage, 
and will take the last thing a man has if the holder sees 
fit to crowd him. Custom is an iron law in India, and 
the custom is to spend large sums on the marriage of a 
daughter. On such occasions the money-lender is 



Occupations 137 

often called upon. This is one of the ways to account 
for the poverty of the people. 

No one could live opposite a police headquarters, 
as we did for nine years, without realizing that police- 
men are a factor not to be overlooked in speaking of 
occupations. The lowest grade of these is the chauke- 
dar, or village watchman. These men are armed with 
a tough bamboo pole six feet long, on the end of which 
is a spear. They go around the village at night and 
call out now and again at the top of their voice. I have 
often told them that they call out so as to give the thief 
a good chance to get away. So far as being a pro- 
tection against thieves is concerned, in our part of the 
country they are absolutely worthless. In northern 
India, Europeans employ one of the thief caste as a 
watchman, and then they are safe though the watch- 
man sleep all night. In this they show a good deal of 
shrewdness and policy. 

The next above the chaukedar is the Bengal police. 
These men enlist as persons do in the army, and have 
regular military drill. They are distinguished by their 
blue drill pantaloons, shirt, and headcloth. I would 
not depreciate any part of the government machinery 
of any worth, but I have had pretty good chances for 
knowing, and I have no hesitation in saying that they 
are about as big a set of rascals as could well be found. 
Possibly they help preserve the peace, but I doubt it. 
On the other hand, they bring many innocent people 
into the law courts. They are supposed to have crimi- 
nal cases to report frequently, but if these cases do not 
come under their observation they don't have much 



138 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

trouble in getting up one. But they are more noted 
for hushing up those which ought to come to the sur- 
face than for trumping up cases. The palms of the 
polioeman's hands itch for coin, which will work 
wonders for the guilty man, and withholding this no 
one need expect much help. 

Let me give a personal experience to illustrate this: 
I took with me to India a very nice, valuable watch, 
which came to me from a dear younger brother, whom 
death had taken from us. I had a little pocket on the 
wall near the head of the bed where I hung my watch 
at night. It often happened that I left it there through 
the day also. One day I went to get it and it was not 
there. People said, " Tell the police," and so I did. 
They at once came to the house. It was not the ordi- 
nary policeman in a blue drill suit, but a man a grade 
or two higher, having on white drill with two or three 
red stripes across his sleeve, a white headcloth fringed 
with red, and around him a leathern belt with a brass 
buckle. Along with this head man came a writer and 
an ordinary policeman in blue. This latter had to 
come to carry the ink bottle and a little roll of brown 
paper, on which were to be noted some of the impor- 
tant things necessary to be known in the case: First, 
" Which door would the thief be likely to enter ? " As 
there were seven to the room, it is probable he had 
some trouble in deciding, but at last the writer was 
told what to record in this connection. Then, " How 
far did the pocket hang from the bed? " The distance 
wa-s roughly estimated and recorded. Then the color 
of the pocket must be carefully noted. This was very 



Occupations 139 

important. It was not only red like the fringe of his 
headcloth, but a much brighter red. Several other 
things of equal importance were observed and care- 
fully noted. With a profound bow he departed, care- 
fully to consider the records he had ordered made, 
with a promise to call again the next day. 

The next day he came to reassure himself that his 
observations of the previous day were correct. Find- 
ing he had made no mistake, he again withdrew with 
a promise to call again soon. The next day he came 
to announce his conclusions; namely, that some one 
acquainted with the premises, and some one with a 
knowledge of the fact that I had a watch, had probably 
stolen it. This was a long step in the right direction. 
The next conclusion was that no one would be more 
likely to have this knowledge than some of the serv- 
ants, and therefore some of them had it. If they had 
it, we would better search their houses for it, which he 
proceeded to do, but found no watch. I gave him no 
fee, and no more effort was made to find my watch by 
the police. The native Christians, with myself, decided 
who the guilty man was, and a month afterward two 
of our native preachers found him and recovered my 
watch. 

These men walk about with their clubs hanging by 
their side, and strike terror into the hearts of many of 
the poor, ignorant people. They often buy things of 
the farmers at their own price, and vague rumors are 
sometimes heard that often they never pay for what 
they get. This is without doubt true. Perhaps, on the 
whole, it is better to keep them as policemen than to 



140 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

discharge them, and let such a bad class loose on so- 
ciety. 

The garrie wallah, or cartman, must receive a little 
attention. His cart is made of two large wheels, five 
feet in diameter, a wooden axle, two large poles in the 
shape of a letter V (only with a much more acute 
angle), with the point eight feet in front of the axle, 
and the two ends running back of the axle eight feet. 
At the point the yoke is tied with a strong rope, and 
over the axle is the cover. This is made by bending 
green bamboo strips, tying other strips across them, 
and spreading palm leaves over the whole. This 
covering makes a good protection from rain and sun. 
The yoke is simply a straight pole with a loose pin 
in either end, and the bullocks are generally small cat- 
tle, with a hump on their necks just in front of the 
shoulder blade. In northern and southern India the 
cattle have long ears, and are much larger than in 
Bengal. The hump catches the yoke as soon as they 
begin to draw. If the cartman is very fond of his bul- 
locks, he will have them tattooed in many places on 
their bodies with different figures. This is done by 
burning them with a red-hot iron. If he is able, he 
will have a string of cowries ^ around the base of their 
horns, and a sweet-sounding bell on the neck of each. 

A hollow bamboo, a foot long, is fastened to the 
cover to hold oil for greasing his cart and his bullocks' 
horns, while on the top of the cover may be seen his 
box and earthen jar for cooking and feeding purposes. 
The driver loads his cart so as to allow a heavy 

1 A small shell used as money. 



Occupations Ml 

portion to rest on the necks of his bullocks, and when 
ready to start he sits astride the V-shaped tongue, 
sticks his toes into the belly of each bullock, gives them 
a blow with his club of a whip, seizes each one by the^ 
root of the tail with his thumb and finger, and shouts 
to them. If this will not start them nothing will. 
While on the road the cartmen often cook, feed their 
bullocks, and eat under the shade of a tree, and sleep 
under or in their carts. All teaming is done by the 
faithful bullocks. Horses draw only people. 

There is also quite an array of domestics connected 
with every well-to-do household. The native gentle- 
men are very fond of making a display of these. In 
the eyes of their fellow-countrymen their wealth is 
determined by the number of people they can have 
around their houses. You call on a native gentleman, 
and you will be surprised to see the number of serv- 
ants that will make their appearance at one time or 
another. I never could tell what they all did. English 
officials have a good many, but missionaries reduce 
their staff to the lowest number possible. 

But before I speak of the duties of these domestics, 
let me say a word as to their necessity. The question 
is asked, " Why do missionaries keep servants? Why 
do they so soon forget their simple habits of living 
after they get to India? 

I may as well say a few words now as at any time 
on this subject. In the first place, missionaries have 
been, as a rule, people who in the home land had sim- 
ple habits. In the next place, they are, as a rule, in- 
telligent and conscientious people. These two facts 



142 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

ought to be a guarantee that they would not unneces- 
sarily indulge luxurious habits. They keep servants 
because they are a necessity. They pay for them from 
their own pocketbooks, so of course would not keep 
more than were needed. The country is very hot, so 
that we cannot put forth more physical effort than is 
necessary to do what is needed in connection with our 
missionary work. If we did our own work, it would 
be at the expense of the cause we were sent to serve. 
I contend that it is no more right for our wives to 
neglect their mission work for their housework, than 
it would be for a school-teacher in this country to be 
making her dresses and aprons during the hours of 
teaching. The missionary's wife is paid to do mission 
work, as a teacher is paid to teach the school. It is 
true there are some duties she cannot relegate to serv- 
ants, but she can have them wash her clothes, and 
make them, and do many other things which she does 
herself in America. 

'' If necessary to have some, why have so many ? " 
For the same reason th'at if we have one we must have 
a number. With their caste ideas one will not do the 
work which belongs to another. A cook will not sweep, 
and a gardener cannot cook, and a tailor cannot wash 
clothes. Members of one class cannot do the work 
of another, and would not if they could. We must, 
therefore, have separate people to do these various 
kinds of work. We must bear in mind that they work 
very cheaply and board themselves. Besides all this, 
there are so many people who are struggling for an 
existence, and who can hardly keep their children from 



Occupations 143 

starving, that from sheer pity we would employ them 
as much as we possibly could. Many of them are good 
and true, and one becomes quite attached to them. 
They are also at times a great trial. 

Having said so much as an explanation for their 
necessity, let us look at their work. Let us begin with^ 
the bearer. This man is supposed to look after the 
children and keep them from running into the sun, 
dust the furniture, keep the mould off our books and 
shoes during the rains, fill the lamps, buy material for 
annual repairs, look after these repairs, and do many 
kinds of work in that line, so that the man of the 
house may not be tried every hour in the day with these 
things. As natives go, he is a pretty faithful man, 
but you have some trials with him. When he cleans 
the books he may put them in wrong end up, and in 
his efforts to keep others from cheating you he is apt 
to do it himself. Then you are never quite sure about 
the children. We may find one of them out in the 
sun with no hat on, which never should be allowed. If 
we chide the bearer, he will tell us the child ran out 
itself, and would go, and what could he do? So, 
while the bearer looks after things in general, we must 
look after him in particular. 

The butcher comes. He is a Mohammedan, of 
course, and has with him a small boy who carries, on 
a flat, dirty tray, made of split bamboos, some meat. 
He plants himself in the back door so as to attract our 
attention, and when he gets our eye, makes a low 
salaam (bow). We go to him to see what he has, 
and he tells us it is a nice piece of lamb, and he picks 

K 



144 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

it up and turns it over, and points out the fat, if he can 
find any, and assures us that it is young and tender. 
We tell him we fear it is not lamb but goat. He em- 
phatically declares it is lamb, and asks if we ever saw 
wool growing from a goat's leg, and then points tri- 
umphantly to the wool near the foot, which he did 
not take off. We are sure he is right, and buy his 
lamb. Don't be at all surprised to find that the wool 
was carefully sewed on a goat's leg, by which process 
goat is readily turned into lamb. 

Here is the gardener. We must have a little house 
built in the garden for him. It need not be large — 
ten feet square will do, but he must have it in order 
to keep people from stealing the fruit and vegetables. 
He watches the fruit as it ripens, and plucks it before 
the crows, or monkeys, or bad boys do. He is sup- 
posed to board himself, but intends to get all the fruit 
and vegetables he needs out of the garden. Each 
morning he brings in the fruit and vegetables, taste- 
fully arranged on a flat woven bamboo tray. He is 
a gardener by caste, and rarely does anything else 
but work in fruits, vegetables, or grains. 

But of all servants the cook, next to the sweeper, is 
the most important. The cook-house is at some dis- 
tance from the house, and no European woman could 
walk back and forth between this and the house very 
much in the hot sun. The cook is, therefore, left a 
good deal to himself. This suits him well, for he can 
then do about as he likes. There is in the house a sort 
of pantry, in which all the provisions are kept under 
lock and key. The lady of the house makes up her mind 



Occupatio ns 145 

what she wants for the different meals of the day, and 
gives her orders to the cook early in the morning. He 
comes to the pantry with his dishes and she comes with 
her keys. He gets rice, dal, onions, sugar, cracked 
wheat, potatoes, if there are any, salt, and ghee. He 
sometimes says he has not enough salt or sugar or 
ghee. She may give him more, or may say, " That is 
surely enough for one day." He says nothing, of 
course, but takes his things and goes. At dinner you 
find that things which required salt are too fresh, or 
things which required sugar are not sweet enough, and 
the ghee is nearly minus in some things. You may 
suggest to the cook that the dinner is tasteless. He 
tells you very meekly that he is very sorry, but it is 
impossible for him to make things sweet without sugar. 
The next time you let him take about what salt, sugar, 
and ghee he asks for. You see the man has a family 
at home, and they like salt in their rice and ghee in 
their dal. You know that what of these your dinner 
lacks has gone into his, but you are helpless, and must 
make the best of the situation. One may say, " Why 
not dismiss him when you know he does such things, 
and get another ? " The fact is, we would not better 
our condition if we did. The man has been with us a 
number of years, so that he and his family are well 
fed. The chances are the new man and his family 
would be lean and poor. You can see what would fol- 
low. 

The cook comes very early to the house to pre- 
pare the morning meal. This is very simple. It may 
be a piece of toast, a boiled egg, and a cup of tea. 



146 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

He churns our butter in a pickle bottle by shaking it 
vigorously. The butcher takes the leg of mutton we 
bought to the cook, and it was he who showed you the 
piece of lambskin which was sewed on the leg of the 
goat. He may show it or he may not. That will de- 
pend entirely on whether it will pay him to do so. We 
must remember that there is a good deal of power in 
the hands of the cook. Let us walk out quietly to the 
cook-house, and put our ear to a crack in the door 
and listen. If we listen sharply, we may hear some- 
thing like this : 

Cook. " How much did the mem-sahib give for this 
mutton? " 

Butcher. " One rupee." 

Cook. " This is not mutton, it is goat." 

Butcher. " You don't know mutton from goat. 
That is a sheep." 

Cook. '' Do your sheep fasten the wool on their 
legs with a thread? " The butcher sees he is caught, 
and smiles, and the cook says, "I want more dusturi." ^ 

Butcher. " I am giving you now two pice on the 
rupee, and that is the regular custom." 

Cook. "A man who makes his money as you do, 
by selling goat's meat for mutton, can give three pice 
on the rupee." The butcher refuses, a quarrel ensues, 
and the cook, always greatly interested in our welfare, 
brings the leg to us, shows the trick, and tells us to 
dismiss this man and get an honest butcher. 

' Dusturi is the money paid to servants by any person who sells goods of any 
kind to Europeans or wealthy natives. It is one thirty-second of the value of the 
article. The cook buys for the table, and gets his dusturi, the hostler for the horses, 
and gets his, etc. This all comes out of the purchaser. 



Occupations 147 

Almost all the natives do their cutting of meats and 
vegetables by means of a knife shaped something like 
a sickle. One end of this is fastened into a board fifteen 
inches long and four inches wide, and so fixed that the 
edge is toward them. When they want to cut any- 
thing for cooking they squat on the floor, put one foot 
on the board to hold it solid, and proceed to cut. This 
kind of knife is found in every native house. The cook 
is not encumbered with many garments while at his 
work. Three yards of factory cotton tied around his 
loins will answer. When we see him come into the 
dining-room with a paper in his hand we know he is 
after money, and wants to render his account. We are 
surprised that all the money we gave him a few days 
ago is gone. But there it is in black and white : Rice, 
so much ; dal, so much ; and so on to the end of the list. 
Many of the smaller things cost but one quarter of a 
cent, but the whole takes all the money and leaves us a 
little in his debt. We know he has cheated us, and we 
think perhaps that we will do our own buying. The 
next day we go to the bazaar for this purpose, but the 
men in the bazaar cheat us so much worse than our 
cook did that we are quite willing for him to continue. 
We had a Mohammedan cook whose name was Jesso. 
Chicken is the principal meat, and Jesso bought the 
chickens. One day my wife, who was fond of the leg, 
after eating one looked for the other. It was not to 
be found. She called the cook and inquired into the 
matter. Jesso said, " Chickens are very scarce these 
days, and this one with one leg is all I could find in 
the market." 



148 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

There is a small piece of cloth which may be said 
to be the badge of the cook. It is a yard long and half 
a yard wide, and he usually carries it on his naked 
shoulder. It answers a great variety of purposes, 
among which is straining milk. This is not by order 
or consent of the lady of the house, but the way he does 
when alone and unmolested. They never want to see 
any milk wasted, so insist on squeezing out with their 
thumb and finger the last drop. We may have told 
him a score of times that we would much prefer a few 
drops less milk and a little less dirt, but the next time 
he strains the milk it is the same thing. 

As showing another use to which this piece of cloth 
may be put, let me tell a little incident which was told 
us at the tea-table the day it occurred. The victim 
was Mrs. Boyer, our neighbor just across the street. 
She was feeling a little languid so asked the cook to 
make her a cup of coffee, which he proceeded to do. It 
was so very nice that she asked for a second cup. The 
cook told her he was sorry that he could not make 
her any more, for the reason that he had no more milk. 
She said, " I thought you had a quart of milk," and the 
cook replied, " So I had, mem-sahib, but the boy spilt 
it on the cook-house floor, and all I could sop up I put 
in your other cup of coffee." We can't say that these 
cooks are really dirty men, but they do things differ- 
ently than we do in America. But they are faithful in 
many respects, and in spite of all their faults we like 
them. 

House cannot be kept without the dirze. This is the 
man who sews. He comes in the morning at nine 




Washermen in the foreground; a zvater 
carrier on the left 




One way of crossing rivers^ Bengal 



^ Occupations 149 

o'clock, and stays until five. He never wears his shoes 
inside the house, and never takes off his cap. He has 
a bit of grass matting, three feet by six feet, which he 
takes from the corner of the room and unrolls. Lei- 
surely he proceeds to sit down with his legs crossed 
under him. He has a little box which he unlocks, and 
takes from it his scissors, needles, pins, cloth, etc. He 
is now ready for operation. He is a pretty good imita- 
tor, and insists that he can make anything you want if 
you will give him a pattern. Sometimes he does very 
well, and sometimes he spoils the garment. He never 
will acknowledge that a garment is spoiled, and insists 
that a little alteration would make it all right. He is 
very fond of his midday nap, and we shall be sure to 
find him some hour of the day fast asleep. The wife 
can't sit over him all the time. If she could she might 
as well do the work. He generally is carrying on a lit- 
tle business by himself at home, so a yard or two of 
print seldom comes amiss. Even thread and needles 
and pins can be used. These he can quietly slip in and 
under his garments at convenient times. If we think 
needles and thread go too fast, he tells us needles are 
poor, and they don't put as much thread on a spool as 
they used to. We learn what Paul meant when he said, 
Take " joyfully the spoiling of your goods." 

Every Monday morning the washerman comes. 
The housewife has a book to keep her accounts with 
him, which she brings out while he proceeds to count 
the soiled clothes. '' One, two, three, four — four 
sheets." This is marked down. Then towels are 
counted. It may be at this tim.e some one asks for the 



150 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

mem-sahib, and her attention is taken away for the 
moment. This is his opportunity to put in an extra 
garment. If he is caught he says he made a mistake in 
the count, but if not he is a garment ahead, for he 
brings back only the number marked. After all are 
counted he rolls them up in a big sheet, puts them upon 
his head, and carries them to the tank, or river, where 
they are pounded over stones, or poles, or slabs, and 
boiled in a coarse soap with water until they are clean. 
In this process buttons are torn off and the color is 
taken out of prints and calicoes. If there are some 
good pearl buttons on the garments he may cut some of 
them off, then declare they were lost in the washing. 
They are again counted and checked off when he 
brings them back, and if they tally, all right, but if not 
he agrees to make them right. Half of them are now 
made over to the dirze to mend tears and sew on but- 
tons, and the rest are put away. 

You must have a man who is called a syce to at- 
tend your horse. There are many reasons for this. In 
the first place, the horses are generally so vicious that, 
being used to the natives, a white man could not har- 
ness or saddle them. In the next place, there are no 
hitching-posts, and if there were we would not dare 
hitch our horse, for whatever was movable might be 
taken before we got back to our carriage. Again, we 
cannot afford the time to attend to our horse when we 
can hire it done for five cents a day, and the man of 
course boards himself, as do all the rest of the servants. 
Each day the man has to go and find grass where he 
can ; and all through the dry season with a sort of spud 



Occupations 151 

he digs it up by the roots. This is washed in the tank, 
or river, and brought home. The horse also eats dan- 
nah, the grain from which dal is made. The syce and 
his family eat dal, and could easily eat the horse's share, 
so we must have the horse brought to the house and see 
him fed. This is not always possible for us to do, and 
therefore the man often gets some of the food the horse 
should have. But when we think that the man is really 
hungry enough to eat raw peas, we can hardly be- 
grudge him the little he may steal. 

In giving an account of the occupations, we must not 
overlook the punka wallah, for he is necessary to the 
very existence of the European in India. A punka is 
a contrivance for keeping the air in motion in a room. 
This is made by taking a pole, say five inches in diame- 
ter, and anywhere from ten to twenty feet long, and 
suspending it from the ceiling by means of hooks and 
ropes. It hangs down four or five feet from the ceil- 
ing, and is swung back and forth by means of a man 
pulling a rope which is attached to it. To the pole 
is tacked a heavy frill about eighteen inches wide, and 
it is this which keeps the air in motion as the punka 
swings back and forth. This man is the punka wallah. 

I fancy I hear some one say, " Do you have some one 
to fan you ? " Truth compels me to answer yes to 
that question. This is one of the " luxuries " of the 
missionaries' life that we sometimes hear about. I 
have told you something of the climate, and the work 
of the missionary is spoken of further on. But we 
will have to emphasize one or two things before you 
will see the necessity of a punka wallah. When the 



152 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

wind gets in the south the temperature of the atmos- 
phere rapidly changes, so that by April we must close 
our doors by nine o'clock, and sometimes earlier, to 
keep out the outside wind, which feels at times like the 
air from an oven. You may fancy yourself shut up in 
a room where the thermometer will be from 90° to 
100°, and not the slightest motion in the air. It is 
true we are not all in our houses by this time in the 
morning. Those who have gone out to the zenanas, or 
the villages, or schools, do not get in before ten 
o'clock; but some members of the household are in the 
house and the punka must go. We dress thinly, and 
yet if we get out of a room where the punka is, in a 
very few moments the perspiration will begin to ooze 
from every pore in the skin. 

English officers, whose salaries are large, start their 
punkas in a number of rooms, and keep them going 
night and day for seven or eight months. Missionaries, 
whose salaries will not admit of this, economize their 
punka pulling as much as possible. But punkas we 
must have to some extent if we are to live and work 
at all. It often happens during the rainy season that 
not a breath of air is stirring night or day. At such 
times as this we must have punkas at night also. The 
punka wallah is not an unalloyed blessing. We often 
have such a trial with him that we think we will get 
along without him, but a day of such an experience 
causes us to decide to choose the least of two evils. 

Let me try to take the reader through one night's 
experience. We retire at ten o'clock, when our night 
men are supposed to be on hand. They are probably 



Occupations 153 

there, though they may be late. We He down with our 
thin night suit on, and the punka starts. We are com- 
paratively comfortable, though io° cooler would suit 
us much better, and we go to sleep. By and by we 
awake with a feeling of suffocation, and we find our 
clothes wet with sweat and the punka standing still. 
Then we call out, " Punka tannow ! " which is an 
order to pull the punka. It may move, and it may not. 
If it does not, we get up and take hold of the rope and 
give it a pull. Our man who is pulling is off in another 
part of the house, or out on the veranda, but even in 
his sleep he holds on to the rope, so our pull at his 
rope awakens him. He suddenly comes to the conclu- 
sion that he has been sleeping, and begins to pull most 
vigorously. It may be he pulls so hard to convince us 
that he has been wide awake all the time. At all 
events, he now pulls so hard that the breeze on our 
damp night clothes makes us feel chilly, and we must 
call out to him to pull more slowly. This he is quite 
willing to do, and so it swings more slowly and keeps 
on growing slower and slower, until finally it stops 
again. Then we know our man has again gone to 
sleep. We again go through the process of awakening 
him, and again our punka is pulled spasmodically. We 
keep on this way for half an hour, and then go out 
where the man is and convince him that he has been 
sleeping, and that he must wake up thoroughly and 
keep awake. It may be we tell him if he can't do better 
we must get some one else. Now he is thoroughly 
aroused and pulls steadily, and we retire and go to 
sleep again, only to repeat the experience an hour or 



154 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

two hence. We get up in the morning feehng that 
we have not slept more than half the night, and wish 
that we could just for one night lie down on a bed and 
pull a blanket over us, and sleep without the '* luxury " 
of a punka wallah. 

There is no class of people in all India which is so 
absolutely essential as the sweepers. If they knew their 
power and would combine, they would command any 
kind of a salary, for no other caste would under any 
circumstances do their work. Their duties are to 
sweep the house and yard and attend to the bathroom 
work. 

There is a maidservant, the ayah, who makes the 
beds and attends the smaller children. All in all, the 
servants are as faithful and honest as so many per- 
sons would be in America, if they were often pinched 
with hunger. There are many trials in connection with 
so many people about the house, and one often wishes 
conditions were different. But since they are as they 
are, we make the best we can out of them. We like the 
servants, as a rule, and they become attached to us. 
They are very polite, and seldom give us a saucy an- 
swer. They will bear a great deal of hardship and 
fatigue without grumbling, and our interest is always 
paramount with them, next to their own. Their wages 
range from one dollar to two dollars and a half a 
month, except in the larger cities, where they are more. 
Most of the servants we had were with us a number of 
years, and when we left some of them prostrated them- 
selves at our feet, and wept as if their hearts were 
breaking. 



;:i^ 



■ Q 




m \s 




> r'x^S^^ 




Occupations 155 

The carpenter comes next. He is the man who makes 
anything, from the rude doors and door- jambs in the 
mud houses, to bureaus, bedsteads, chairs, and beauti- 
ful inlaid boxes in artistic designs. He sits on his heels 
in his shop or on the mud floor of his veranda, and 
there he executes his work. His tools are not many. 
A small saw with hooked teeth, which he pulls toward 
him to saw his boards, is quite necessary. His joints 
are cut by the use of a mallet and chisel, instead of a 
saw. His plane usually has a rough edge, like the 
edge of a sickle, so it works more like a rasp on the 
surface of a board than like a smooth plane. He bores 
not with brace and bit, but by means of an instrument 
which resembles a large scratch awl. It is a diamond- 
pointed bit firmly set in a handle, which handle has a 
number of grooves turned upon it. Then he takes a 
round stick, say a half-inch in diameter, and about 
two and one-half feet long, and to each end of this 
stick he ties a strong string, leaving it quite loose. 
This string he winds twice around the handle of his 
bit in the grooves turned for this purpose, and once 
around his thumb. Now he takes hold of the stick 
with the same hand and holds it firmly, and then moves 
his hand back and forth. This motion of course turns 
the bit the same as a belt turns a wheel, only it turns 
the bit one way and then another, according as his arm 
swings backward and forward. This cuts a clean, nice 
hole through the hardest of woods. He has a variety 
of sizes, as we have different-sized bits, only none of 
them exceed a half-inch in diameter. If a larger hole 
is required a chisel is used. 



156 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

The school-teacher is a man we must by no man- 
ner of means overlook. He is a very important per- 
sonage. He is a man usually highly respected in his 
village. He is not made of common earth. He be- 
longs to a class by himself. He is '' to the manner 
born." He may be extremely poor so far as money 
goes, yet he has quite an important bearing. There 
are many grades of teachers. I do not speak so much 
of the modern teacher, who has perhaps been to Eng- 
land, or is at least a graduate of the Calcutta Univer- 
sity and who now is in some college, and teaches 
the English classics in the English language, but of the 
old-fashioned teacher. This man goes to a village 
where a school is needed, and after finding some shed, 
or finding enough people who will contribute to build 
one, he organizes his school. He finds enough pupils 
who will agree to give him a handful of rice and a 
little fruit, and some ghee and salt, etc. Each does so, 
that his bodily wants may be supplied. Some may 
even agree to bring in a few cents a month. His re- 
ward comes when he gets his pupils to pass the gov- 
ernment examinations. If he has a large school and is 
a good teacher, he may get at the end of the year fif- 
teen or twenty dollars, besides the rice, etc., which the 
pupils give him. With this wrapped up in his cloth, he 
goes back to his native village and enjoys life with his 
wife and family during the long vacation. Let us go 
into his schoolhouse and study the situation. It may be 
simply a shed with a thatch roof, and mud walls up 
half-way to the roof on three sides. The floor is of 
earth. The teacher unrolls his mat and takes his seat 



Occupations 157 

on the floor. Now he makes on the hard earth floor a 
letter with his chalk. He tells them all to make the 
same thing, and then tells them it is Kaw. They all 
sing at the top of their voices " Kaw." And then the 
next is made and its name pronounced, and the school 
in unison after him call out its name. So on they go 
until they have learned the two hundred and fifty let- 
ters and combinations in their alphabet. A well-drilled 
school sounds like the roar of a waterfall. 

Schools with more modern-trained teachers and 
under mission supervision are conducted somewhat 
differently, but you would scarcely hear a pin drop in 
any of them. To study quietly or teach quietly seems 
to the natives quite out of place. 

There are rich bankers and brokers, as well as whole- 
sale merchants of all sorts. 

In all large towns and cities money-changers abound. 
They have a small room opening on the street in the 
more public thoroughfare, and here the men sit on a 
grass mat on the floor beside their money boxes. On 
the floor about them are coins of all kinds and de- 
nominations, in value from the eighth of a cent up to 
one hundred dollars or more. For the sum of half a 
cent and upward they will change money to any 
amount desired. 

Jugglers are seen now and again, though like the 
snakes of India they are not so numerous as people 
imagine. These usually go two together, though some- 
times there is quite a camp of them. They carry a very 
small drum which has a peculiar sound, and one al- 
ways knows of their approach by the vigorous beating 



158 India and Dady Life in Bengal 

of this drum. Some of their tricks are quite clever, 
and the people are very fond of seeing them perform. 
About once a year I allowed them to set up in our 
yard for the entertainment of ourselves and all the 
village people. 

The priests are a numerous class. I have no good 
word to say of them. They serve the idols, taking 
good care to serve themselves in the meantime. Lazy, 
greedy, licentious, are the adjectives which in gen- 
eral apply to them. 

Palky bearers were a class with which formerly more 
than now the travelers had to deal. It takes six of these 
men to each palky, four carrying at a time and two to 
change. Sometimes eight men are required. The vex- 
ations incident to this mode of travel and with these 
men is a subject too prolific to deal with in detail. The 
old-school Bengali babu still clings to his palky, for it 
affords him ample room to sit with his feet folded 
under him, or to recline on his cushion, both of which 
are favorite attitudes. No modern innovation of seats 
where one's legs have to hang down for him. 

I would like to speak of the lawyers at some length, 
but suffice it to say that they are not unlike the profes- 
sion as Christ knew them (Luke 11:46). Take the 
natural temptations to lawyers and couple with that 
the depraved and cunning character of the Orient, and 
you may imagine what the product would be. 

All who have lived in a kutchery station have seen 
the army of clerks as each day they wend their way to 
the courthouse. A more satisfied lot of men never 
lived. Some have passed the university-entrance test, 



^ Occup ations 159 

and others have tried and failed — ^both equally credi- 
table in the mind of the native. They now have a 
position at from two dollars to twenty or thirty dol- 
lars per month, and what more can a soul desire ? The 
clerk has a very pompous swing when he walks; is 
dressed, in addition to other garments, in red or blue- 
striped socks and patent-leather shoes. He has on a 
white shirt, and a thin white dhuti around his loins, 
and a white muslin cloth thrown loosely around his 
shoulders and neck. He is in no hurry when he gets 
into his office. His seat is generally on a mat made of 
grass. He lays aside his extreme outer garment, and 
proceeds first to unroll his grass mat and then to un- 
lock his wooden or tin box. This contains his reed 
pen and earthen ink bottle, and a quantity of brown 
paper. He dips his pen deeply in his ink bottle, and 
then throws the superfluous ink on the mat. *' A work- 
man is known by his chips," and a mat well spotted 
with ink denotes a vigorous workman. He needs no 
desk on which to write. The top of his box will do, 
or more likely he will hold his paper in one hand while 
he writes with the other. Speed is not aimed at, but 
accuracy is. His accounts must be correct to a fraction 
of a cent. When his day's work is done he wends his 
way home, and removes these superfluous garments 
with which modern civilization has compelled him to 
be clothed, and with the covering nature gave him, 
with a little addition of man's manufacture about his 
loins, he lies on his divan, or sits cross-legged on his 
mat, and smokes his hookah and chats and eats, gam- 
bles sometimes, and so lives in his native simplicity 

L 



/ 60 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

until the duties of another day call him away. And 
thus his life passes. He has little ambition to rise, 
unless it be for the more money there may be in it. 

The herdsmen are those who keep cattle and have 
milk and ghee (clarified butter) for sale. Their chil- 
dren drive out the cattle to the commons in the morn- 
ing and back to the enclosures at night. They are sup- 
posed to look out very sharply that none of the cows 
eat the heads of rice as they pass the rice fields, and 
yet many a tender morsel of rice is nipped by them as 
they go and come. 

A cow gives milk only as long as the calf sucks, 
and always the calf must have a little before the cow 
is milked. These habits cannot be changed even in 
the herd of missionary cows. 

The cows in Bengal are for the most part small, and 
give about a quart of milk, more or less, at each milk- 
ing. The milk jar is sweetened and purified by hold- 
ing it over the smoke of some burning cow manure, 
dried thoroughly for that purpose. A little of this 
manure is also supposed to give the milk a better 
flavor. This is why we can never use the milk from 
the Hindu villages. We insist that our milkmen shall 
have clean vessels to milk in, but the Hindu cannot 
understand such absurd customs. Buffaloes give a 
very rich milk, and are used largely in many parts for 
both their milk and ghee. 

Chowl wallees are rice women. Carrying rice is 
a distinct industry. These poor women go to the 
farmers round about and buy the unhulled rice and 
hull it, and carry it to market (sometimes a distance 



Occupations 161 

of six or eight miles) upon their heads or hips, and 
sell it at enough advance to get small pay for their 
labor. Long lines of these poor women may be seen 
almost any day during the cold season bringing their 
rice to market in this way. 

There are fishermen in India as in other countries. 
The rivers abound in fish, and almost every tank has 
its fish, and in the Bay of Bengal fish are very nu- 
merous. In no country can better fish be found or 
a greater variety. They are caught mainly by seines, 
and from the bay are spread out on the shore to dry. 
The natives do not mind if the fish are a little old. 
In fact, they are rather fond of a stale fish, just as 
some people like Limburger cheese. 

The barber is the man with a bag by his side, in 
which are his shears and razor, and a knife for cutting 
toenails and fingernails. He may always be told by 
this badge. The poorer natives will hail him as he 
passes along the street, and both proceed to squat on 
the ground or sidewalk, while the barber proceeds to 
shave his customer. One cent pays the bill. No soap 
is necessary, and a little water put on by the finger is 
all that is needed. This same barber, or some other, 
comes to the home of Europeans and does the barber- 
ing for the man of the house. For two rupees per 
month he will shave a person two or three times a 
week, keep his hair cut, and trim his nails if requested. 

There are also those who get their living by cut- 
ting wood from the jungles, and bringing it to market 
for sale. Also men who make charcoal, and bring it 
many miles on their shoulders and sell it for fuel. 



/ 62 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

Here in this great country are three hundred miUions 
of people who want to Hve, and the greater number 
of them are strugghng to hve. They are, as a rule, 
hard-working and painstaking. They are selfish, to 
be sure, and sharp at a bargain, but no more so than 
many of the people of Christian countries. Their in- 
terest in the welfare of the man who employs them is 
deep and genuine, and especially if they have been 
many years in one's employ. Their burdens are often 
very heavy, but uncomplainingly they bear them. 
Christianity would do much to lighten their burdens, 
and we pray that the toiler of India may soon see and 
accept the better life. 



CHAPTER XIV 
A Glance at Hinduism 

THERE are many languages spoken in India, 
many nationalities represented, and adherents 
to many kinds of religions. Away back at 
the very dawn of history, fifteen or twenty 
centuries before Christ, when our Aryan brothers first 
entered India as invaders, there were hordes of peo- 
ple scattered over its fertile plains. These aborigines 
were worshipers of evil spirits. They thought it bet- 
ter to appease the wrath of the evil spirits, their en- 
emies, than to invoke the blessing of the good spirits. 
Though many of these tribes have been grafted into 
Hinduism, they still retain some of these practices. 

Hinduism is not what it was three or four thousand 
years ago. The Hindus were never monotheistic, but 
were formerly much nearer so than now. Then they 
said : " Suerja, the sun, drives away the cold and gives 
us light, and should receive adoration; Indra, rain, 
makes our rice and millet and grass grow, and should 
be worshiped; Agni, fire, is powerful, and should be 
an object of our devotions." In Vedic times they 
reasoned thus, and had but thirty-three gods — eleven 
in heaven, eleven on the earth, and eleven in midair. 
Gradually they came to believe that everything was 
but a manifestation of supreme power, or a part of 
the supreme power, and should be worshiped; and so 

163 



164 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

their thirty-three gods multipHed into thirty-three 
millions. 

The Hindus are idolaters. The more educated do 
not wish to be classed with those who worship idols, 
and there are defenders of Hinduism in America and 
England who do not call them idolaters. I have 
more than once talked with educated Hindus, who 
claimed that they were not worshiping the idol but 
God, which the idol represents. They say : ** As you 
Christians believe that God is in everything and every- 
where, so do wx; and therefore he is in this brass idol 
and in this tree which we worship." That sounds very 
well, but two things must be borne in mind in this 
connection: and the first is, they do not think God is 
in everything and thus worship him, for the priest 
must put on the mark before an image or a tree be- 
comes an object of worship. The other is that the 
great mass of the common people think the idol itself 
has the power to hear and to help. 

Before the Aryans settled down to till the soil, they 
were but wandering herdsmen, and their wealth con- 
sisted of their cattle. Even after they became culti- 
vators they were anxious to increase their herds. The 
faithful bullock plowed their fields and bore upon 
his back their burdens, and the cow gave them milk 
and butter. If any object was worthy of adoration, it 
was these faithful animals; so the cow and the bull 
early became sacred in the eyes of the devout Hindu. 
The image representing a crouching bull is called 
Mahadab, and means, literally, " great god." We find 
a great many such images. Some of these are of gi- 




On the banks of the Ganges, Benares 
stone god, Mohadabe 




Temples on the banks of the Ganges, Benares 



A Glance at Hinduism 1 65 



gantic size, as the one near the Well of Knowledge in 
the city of Benares; others are small. Some are kept 
in public-places, and others in temples and private 
houses. 

A queen who lived near our mission in India, reali- 
zing that her end was near, had brought to her side her 
favorite cow, and taking its tail in her hand passed 
quietly and contentedly into the spirit land. 

Motherhood is the one great thing to be desired 
on the part of a wife in India; and no disgrace, 
scarcely, is greater than that of being childless. Such 
women are taught that if they perform a proper wor- 
ship at the shrine of Mahadab they may become 
mothers. There are many things in connection with 
the worship of this image of which I cannot speak, 
for with our ideas of decency they would be considered 
obscene in the extreme. 

The Hindus attach great sanctity to certain places, 
and think a visit to these places will in some way 
bring great good to them. Among the most noted of 
these is Benares. What Mecca is to the Mohammed- 
ans, or Jerusalem to the Jews, that is Benares to the 
Hindus. I was once on the train in the same compart- 
ment with two well-educated native gentlemen, going 
up from Mogul Sarai to Benares. As soon as the 
minarets of its mosques and the spires of its temples 
came in sight, they exclaimed, " Behold our sacred 
city ! " Built upon the high and sloping banks of the 
Ganges River, from a distance it presents a beautiful 
appearance. Closer acquaintance, however, removes the 
delusion. But to the devout Hindu, the very sight of 



/ 66 India and Daily Life in Bengal 



it brings raptures of joy; for if he can but bathe in the 
sacred Ganges, in this the hoHest of cities, great merit 
is put down to his credit by the god who keeps a care- 
ful record of all our good and bad deeds, and offsets 
the one by the other. What wonder is it then that, for 
miles along its banks, priests may be seen sitting every 
day in the year under their large umbrellas to receive 
the offerings of the pilgrims who have come from all 
parts of India to bathe in Ma Ganga — Mother Ganges ? 

Here too are the burning-places to which the dead 
are borne from as great a distance as possible; for 
if their ashes can be sprinkled on the holy river the 
day of their complete redemption will be hastened. 
Sometimes aged people come here to die. 

A ride in a boat, gently floating with the current, in 
the morning, for a distance of four miles, down by 
these bathing-places, will make impressions never to 
be forgotten. There is devotion enough to awe you 
into silence and meditation, and disgusting sights 
enough to sicken you at heart and stomach. It may 
truly be said of many of the Hindus that they are 
" weary and heavy-laden." They seem extremely rest- 
less, as if in possession of the knowledge that they are 
a long way from God, and are trying to find their way 
back to him. Many of them spend the last years of 
their lives in going from one shrine to another. Some 
of them are satisfied with visiting a single shrine. 

There are places of established merit, and there are 
others for which priests and pandas are trying to 
work up a reputation. Brindaban has long been one 
of the most sacred, its priests claiming for it even 



A Glance at Hinduism 167 



greater sanctity than that of Benares itself. It is a 
city full of temples, and Seth's Temple is the most 
beautiful and costly of them all; in fact, the most costly 
Hindu temple in the world. The king of Jeypore is 
building one now at Brindaban which will be a rival 
to the celebrated Taj Mahal. When I was at the place, 
a few years ago, five hundred men had been at work 
on it five years, and it was still far from being com- 
pleted. Here also come pilgrims in great numbers. 

Four miles from Brindaban is the city of Muttra, 
on the river Jumna, between Agra and Delhi. This 
is the reputed birthplace of Krishna, considered as an 
incarnation of Vishnu. On the plains near the city 
he fed his herds, and numerous relics of antiquity 
attest the sanctity with which the place is invested. 
Krishna was no doubt a hero, strong and brave in 
battle, as well as too full of craft and cunning for his 
enemies to succeed against him. He defended the city 
of Muttra against eighteen attacks by the father-in- 
law of Kansa, and finally, after complete victory, sat 
and rested here on the banks of the Jumna. From be- 
ing a hero he gradually became transformed into a 
god, and is now as extensively worshiped as any. The 
word beshram means resting, and therefore beshram 
ghat means the resting--place, or stairs. Being the 
spot where Krishna rested, devotees visit it from all 
parts of India. 

At this ghat several things of unique interest are 
seen, though widely different in their nature. One is 
the tall pillar near-by called Suttee Bourge, or the pil- 
lar of suttee. It is a memorial pillar erected on the 



/ 68 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

spot where a live queen was burned beside her dead 
husband. Then there are the huge turtles which 
abound, and to feed which seems to be part of the 
duty of the pilgrims. The turtles will jostle each other 
in trying to get the lion's share of the parched rice 
thrown to them. Equally curious are the " weighing 
arches." Kings and princes making pilgrimages to 
this place have on some occasions erected arches, 
fastened scales to the top of them, and weighed them- 
selves against so many pounds of silver, avoirdupois, 
giving the money to the priests. 

Far up toward the northwest of India the river 
Ganges emerges, clear and cold, from the mountains 
into the plains ; and a city called Hurdwar is built upon 
its banks at this point. Brahminical teachings have 
attached great sanctity and importance to this place, 
and here also every year come thousands of pilgrims. 
Once in twelve years the place has especial virtues, 
and in this year hundreds of thousands visit it. The 
railroads are taxed for weeks to their utmost, carrying 
people in stockcars, crowded together as thickly as 
possible, as well as on the regular trains. Thousands 
also go on foot; for more virtue lies in making a pil- 
grimage on foot than by train. 

The day that I visited the place was sadhus' day. 
The word sadhu means holy man, or devotee. These 
men had congregated from different parts of the coun- 
try to the number of two thousand or more. Many 
Europeans also were present, among them the present 
Czar of Russia, who was then making a tour of India. 
Very early in the morning I was awakened by the 



A Glance at Hinduism J 69 



shrill notes of a wind instrument corresponding to our 
clarinet. I made ready my camera to take a photo- 
graph, but found it impossible to get near on account 
of the multitude of people. They began their exercises 
by a sword performance, and then were marshaled 
into line for a procession. First came sadhus on 
richly caparisoned elephants, these were followed by 
those on camels, then some on ponies, and, lastly, others 
on foot. I was told that they were to cross the pon- 
toon bridge, so stationed myself at the nearest available 
point to get a photograph. The only remarkable thing 
about this day's worship was that all day long these 
men, to the number of at least two thousand, paraded 
the streets of the city as naked as they were the day 
they were born, in the presence of a multitude of men, 
women, and children. 

Another thing essentially connected with their re- 
ligion is the belief in the transmigration of souls. 
That doctrine is simply this : When a person dies only 
his body dies, and the spirit, which was in the body, 
had previously been in some other body and would 
again go to another body. All sin, they say, must be 
punished, and the suffering we have in the flesh is a 
punishment for past sins. They may not be the sins 
committed in this body, but in some previous body. 
We argue, if sorrow comes to us here it may all be 
rectified in the future life. They argue that it comes 
from the past life. We are inspired through suffering 
and trials to hope on ; they have no incentive to hope. 
They say when they have been born enough times, and 
suffered enough to atone for all sins, then they will be 



170 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

absorbed and become a part of God. More than four 
million births, in different forms of life, are ordinarily 
necessary fully to purify the soul. But supreme acts 
of penance can have a great deal to do in cutting short 
these cycles of births. Hence we have the sadhu, or 
devotee. 

A close view of a sadhu reveals a man with an un- 
shaven face and uncut hair. Often his hair hangs 
down in a matted condition to his waist, or lower. 
His body is covered with ashes, and he has on but the 
scantiest bit of cotton cloth around his loins. In win- 
ter a very coarse blanket is thrown over the shoulders 
and hangs down the back. The villagers light a fire 
for them, if it is winter, under some tree, and here 
they sit, eat, and sleep. Sometimes the sadhu crouches 
on a bed of sharp spikes, several hours a day, while 
in his hands he holds his sacred beads on which he 
calls over the names of his gods. The badge of his 
calling is a pair of iron tongs, which he uses to lift 
the coals of fire to put on his pipeful of gunja; for all 
of this class stupefy themselves by smoking this terri- 
ble drug. Sometimes their long hair is coiled on the 
top of their heads. 

They may at times be seen with one hand held 
up until it becomes fixed in that position, and some- 
times even both hands are thus extended. The poor 
fellow who is pictured in the illustration had had his 
hands in this position for twelve ydars when I took the 
photograph. 

I said to him, *' Don't your arms pain you ? " 

" Not now," he replied. '' When I first began they 






'^ 






c^ 




;^ 










A Glance at Hinduism 171 



pained me so I could not endure it, and so I had to tie 
them up, but after they became fixed they did not 
hurt any more." 

On entering the low door of a house he must bend 
his body, allowing his hands to enter first. The com- 
mon people do these singular creatures homage, and 
even the better educated and wealthy often bow down 
to the earth in front of them. 

As I was coming up the street with this man, a 
babu (native gentleman) came out and saluted him, 
and asked him to stop a moment until his son should 
come out. Soon the son came. He was a young man, 
well dressed, and attending the government college at 
Balasore. He at first put his hands together in a sup- 
pliant attitude, and made a low bow to the sadhu. 
But that would not do. The sadhu told him to pros- 
trate himself in the dust, which the young man at once 
proceeded to do. Then the sadhu put his foot upon 
him to emphasize his humiliation. The underlying 
idea in pilgrimages is this doctrine of transmigration 
of souls, and penance is more often performed in this 
way than in any other. 

Among the many images worshiped, few occupy 
a more prominent place than Juggernaut. He is 
simply a hideous, armless, legless, carved piece of 
wood. There are several legends which attempt to 
account for his form, and also for the sanctity of the 
town of Puri, called also Juggernaut, in the southern 
part of Orissa, where he originally appeared. At 
Puri is his greatest temple; but in many, and in fact 
every town in Orissa and Bengal, his temples are seen. 



172 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

The word means '' lord of the world," and the great 
virtue of a pilgrimage is to see him rather than to 
worship. 

As our house was on the great pilgrim road, we 
had opportunity of seeing and conversing with many 
of the pilgrims. Every day hundreds, and many days 
thousands, of these poor creatures could be seen go- 
ing to or returning from Puri. If we asked them what 
benefit they hoped to get from a sight of Juggernaut, 
they would reply "' Mukti " (freedom from sin). 

At all times of the year pilgrims go more or less 
to see Juggernaut, but in much larger numbers when 
what is known as the rath jatra, or car festival, is to 
take place. This is the occasion of the annual ride of 
Juggernaut. There are in fact three days during 
which the idol is exposed to public view. The first 
is the bathing festival, when he is taken from his 
temple, and, on a lofty platform in the presence of a 
vast multitude of people, is bathed by the priests. 
They bathe themselves every day, but their god only 
once a year, so not being used to cold water he is sup- 
posed to take a severe cold. He is therefore taken back 
and put into his temple for ten days, when he is again 
brought out, and by the assistance of the priests is made 
to walk up the inclined bridge from the ground to the 
platform of his huge car. He is placed under a canopy 
made of different-colored cloths, and his car is fes- 
tooned with flowers. By his side sit his brother Bala- 
rama and his sister Subhadra, or they may have sepa- 
rate cars. Three ponderous ropes, a thousand or fifteen 
hundred feet long, are attached to the car, and these 



A Glance at Hinduism 173 

are laid along the street as far as they will extend. 
When the priests and musicians have assembled on 
the platform of the car, and the people have taken hold 
of the ropes, to the number of sometimes ten thousand, 
the officiating priest gives the order for the car to 
move. The musicians, with drums and horns and 
cymbals, and other kinds of instruments, more designed 
to produce noise than harmony, begin to play, and the 
people begin to shout, and the great car begins to move. 
It is a monstrous, unwieldy affair, and with nothing 
to guide it but the ropes, often does damage to build- 
ings along the streets. Juggernaut is taken to a neigh- 
boring temple, where his maternal aunt is supposed to 
reside, and after staying there a week is again placed 
on his car, though with much less enthusiasm on the 
part of the people than on the first occasion, and is 
taken back to his own temple, where he sits until the 
next year. 

In the city of Puri pilgrims congregate to the num- 
ber of from one to two hundred thousand to witness 
the rath. When the return festival is over, they begin 
to disperse. To get a correct idea of the sufferings of 
the pilgrims during their long journeys and their stay 
at Puri, one must see them. The rath occurs usually in 
the month of July, when the rains are well upon us and 
there are but scant accommodations for the people, and 
many have not the means to provide themselves with 
shelter even if shelter could be had ; so thousands sleep 
under trees on the damp ground, thus bringing on 
cholera and other destructive and contagious diseases. 
To see a sick or dying or dead pilgrim lying alone, 



174 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

deserted by his friends, under the shade of some 
banyan or peepul or mango tree, is a most common 
sight. 

This temple at Puri is supposed to be the richest 
shrine in all India. It employs seven hundred pandas, 
or Hindu missionaries, who go, two and two, into the 
villages all through India, to tell the poor, ignorant 
people of the great virtues of Juggernaut, and so per- 
suade many to go on a pilgrimage who otherwise 
would not go. 

The pandas make a careful inquiry into the finan- 
cial standing of every one who engages to go on a 
pilgrimage; this list is handed to the priests at Puri, 
and each one is charged according to his wealth to 
see Juggernaut in his temple; none, however, being 
admitted for less than twenty rupees, or about six 
dollars. If they have not this amount, the priests lend it 
to them, taking as interest an equivalent to three cents 
on a dollar per month. This is regarded as a sacred 
obligation, and binding upon the individual and his 
children and successors for fourteen generations. The 
priests often extort the last cent pilgrims have, and 
they are allowed to start home, not knowing where 
the next meal is to come from. 

They sometimes go on a pilgrimage by prostrations. 
The person making this kind of pilgrimage will stand 
in the road, put his hands together in a suppliant at- 
titude, offer a short prayer, and then prostrate him- 
self in the road, reaching out his hands as far as pos- 
sible, and with a spike, which he carries in his right 
hand, makes a mark in the dust or mud, as the case 




A pilgrimage by prostrations 





A '' hr^U, 



111 n 11 /11J n 



7-1/^/7 n-f chlhz-'C 



A Glance at Hinduism 175 



may be. He then gets up, puts his toes to this mark, 
says his prayer, and again prostrates himself. Three 
miles is the utmost distance a man can go in a day in 
this way, and more often he can go but a mile. These 
people sometimes are three years in making this kind 
of pilgrimage. 

One morning in the month of May, one of the hottest 
of our months, I met one of these men who was will- 
ing to talk. Often they take a vow of silence, and 
speak to no one for the whole time occupied in a pil- 
grimage; but this man stood as soon as I began to 
talk to him. 

I said, " Do you think God is pleased to see you 
suffer as you do this morning ? " 

Said he, " Yes, he is." 

" But you are one of God's children, and he is full 
of love for his children, even though they have gone a 
long way from him in sin." 

" No," said he, " God is not full of love; he is very 
cruel." 

Words were useless; for the man had set his face 
toward Puri, and after resting a moment resumed 
his long and weary journey. Only in this way, ac- 
cording to his thought, could he appease his god. 

While it is true that the people can worship in 
their own dooryard before the toolsy plant, and can 
worship under green trees, still they have thousands 
of temples. Some of these are but the rudest of 
shanties, and some are magnificent structures, and es- 
pecially so if looked at from a distance. Many of them 
are covered with stucco-work from bottom to top. 



176 India and Dady Life in Bengal 

These figures represent scenes in their mythology, and 
to us, whose education is so unhke theirs, often seem 
vulgar, or to have a suggestion of lewdness. 

Sometimes the adornments on the inside are vile 
in the extreme, as I know from personal observation. 
In fact, we must not suppose that a Hindu temple is 
for the Hindus to worship in. They are for the idols 
and the priests. In the morning the priests perform 
the worship in the temple, and come out and sit on 
the porch, and smoke their pipes, and chew their pan, 
and gossip, and bathe in the tank near-by; but they 
do not say comforting words to the poor, and weary, 
and heavy-laden. They do not try to lift the loads off 
shoulders which are all but crushed; but on the other 
hand, lay heavier burdens upon them. 

No glance at Hinduism would be at all complete 
without a reference to caste. Caste is social distinc- 
tion, based not upon wealth, position, education, or 
character, but upon birth. It is perfectly natural for 
people of like tastes to associate together, and so the 
bigoted Hindu tells us that Christian nations have 
caste. I have more than once been told by them that 
there is just as much caste in England as in India. 
There can be no doubt that there is too much of a 
caste feeling growing up in some places, even in our 
own country, but it is very different from the caste 
of India. There is nothing to prevent the people in 
the highest circles in this country from going down 
into the slums and helping raise up the fallen. In fact, 
they are doing that very thing, and year by year are 
doing more of that kind of work ; but not so with the 



A Glance at Hinduism 177 



caste people of India. A high-caste man does not 
want to touch a low-caste. He must on no account 
eat with him. If he does, he becomes an out-caste. 
When some of these men in our Parliament of Re- 
ligions, in Chicago, said that they laid down a plat- 
form which they thought was broad enough for all 
to stand upon ; namely, " The fatherhood of God and 
the brotherhood of man," they were loudly cheered. 
I have many friends among the high-caste gentlemen 
of the city of Balasore, in which we lived; but truth 
compels me to say that they know practically nothing 
of the principle of the "brotherhood of man." Caste 
and that principle are at variance. 

The reader will have observed that I have made 
no attempt to define Hinduism philosophically. I 
have simply told of a few things which many of the 
Hindus do. 

No man can define Hinduism, not even the priests 
or pundits. In fact, some of the best-educated Hindus 
claim that it is not a religion at all, but rather a social 
system. Certain it is that a person may believe what 
he likes, and yet be a good Hindu. He may worship 
all the idols in their system, or worship none; he may 
be a monotheist, or an atheist, or even a Christian at 
heart, and yet be in Hindu society. It is different in 
different places, and is not at all consistent with itself. 
It is even contradictory. But these things do not trou- 
ble the Hindu mind at all. He can believe that black is 
white and that white is black, while at the same time 
each retains its original color. Wherefore attempt to 
define such a svstem, or rather, want of system ? Caste 



178 India and Daily Life in Bengal 



is its essence. Destroy that and it is gone. The rea- 
son why caste is the essence of Hinduism is because 
the Brahmins are the highest caste, and to be supreme 
is more than all else. It is quite possible that they 
attach to it the sanctity of religion in order to main- 
tain this social supremacy. 



CHAPTER XV 
An Outline of the History of Protestant Missions 

A GREAT many centuries ago, Syrian Christians 
existed along the Malabar Coast (northwest- 
^ em coast of India). When Vasco de Gama, a 
Portuguese navigator, went to India early in 
the sixteenth century, he found these Christians with 
their own chieftain and their own distinct government. 
They were in no way connected with Hindu rulers. 
To this day they have their priest, and bishop, and 
Sunday service, and liturgy, such as the Patriarch of 
Antioch used, and are called, wherever known, " St. 
Thomas Christians." The Syriac version of the 
Scriptures was brought to India about A. D. 325. 

The Portuguese planted a few mission stations a 
number of centuries ago, and in 1642 the Dutch be- 
gan work in Ceylon. But what I wish more particu- 
larly to speak of are the missionary efforts either 
within the past century, or of those efforts which led 
to the activity of the past century in missionary work 
by Protestants. 

To the Danes first belongs this honor. In 1705 
two young Germans, Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and 
Henry Plutschau, were sent to Tranquebar, a city 
about two hundred miles south of Madras (on the 
southeast), to commence mission work among the 
Hindus. These men were scholars and devoted to 

(79 



180 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

their work. In those early days there were many more 
difficulties to contend with than there are now. Often 
they were in sore need of money, and at one time Zie- 
genbalg was imprisoned for four months. When he 
came out, he found that the work he had been gather- 
ing up to that time was all broken up. But though 
cast down he was not destroyed, and with character- 
istic energy he began his work over again. Six years 
after his arrival in the country, he had completed a 
translation of the New Testament into the Tamil lan- 
guage. His literary and evangelistic labors were abun- 
dant, but not of very long duration, for in 1 719 he died, 
mourned by three hundred and fifty-five Christians 
whom he had rescued from heathenism. The same 
year three other new missionaries came and joined 
the mission, among whom Schultz received the mantle 
of Ziegenbalg. The latter had translated the Old 
Testament as far as the book of Ruth. Schultz 
completed it. He was not confined to Tamil, but 
studied other languages, and translated portions of 
the Bible into Telugu and Portuguese, and the entire 
Bible into Hindustani. He began work in Madras, 
and extended it to other towns with a zeal which was 
consuming. In Madras, after fifteen years of work, 
he had seven hundred Christian persons in his congre- 
gation, to say nothing of his work in Tranquebar (on 
the coast of Madras) and elsewhere. 

July 30, 1750, Christian Friedrich Schwartz ar- 
rived in India. He was a man of deep piety, great 
zeal, broad education, excellent judgment, humble 
spirit, with but few wants, and with an affectionate 



History of Protestant Missions 181 



and loving nature. It is no wonder that the people 
were drawn to him. The natives loved and revered 
him, the Hindu king of Tanjore (in southern India) 
appointed him as guardian to his adopted son, while 
the British government appointed him arbitrator be- 
tween itself and the haughty Hyder Ali, who had taken 
possession of the kingdom of Mysore and was spread- 
ing terror in every direction. " Let them," says 
Hyder, " send me the Christian Schwartz, for he will 
not deceive me." The Tanjore mission was founded 
by him, and mission stations all along the line were 
greatly strengthened. The native Christians of Tran- 
quebar, Madras, Cuddalore, Trichinopoli, and Palum- 
cotta numbered fifty thousand when Schwartz, '' the 
apostle of India," in the year 1798, after forty-eight 
years of uninterrupted service in the mission field, 
died. 

William Carey came to India in 1793. His field of 
labor was far removed from that of Schwartz, as he 
came at once to Bengal. It cannot be said that he was 
really the pioneer in mission work in Calcutta, for 
Kiernander, a Dane, had preceded him and had met 
with some success. But the coming of Carey was an 
important event in the history of Protestant missions 
in Bengal, and in fact in all India. When he first 
proposed to his brethren in England the plan of giving 
the gospel to the heathen, he met with but little sym- 
pathy. Still, in the face of opposition, he succeeded in 
organizing the Baptist Mission Society in 1792, and 
he was appointed its first missionary. Almost from 
the beginning of his work in India, he met with 



182 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

opposition from the East India Company. To get to 
India at all, he was obliged to come in a Danish ship, 
as the company refused him passage in any of theirs. 
Upon his arrival in the country, he at once began the 
study of the language, but as the receipts of the so- 
ciety which sent him out were very small, want was 
staring him in the face. He went to the Soonderbuns, 
and thought to farm some and at the same time in- 
struct the people. But the air of the Soonderbuns was 
poisoned with malaria, and he was obliged to go else- 
where. He accepted a position in an indigo factory in 
Malda (about midway between Calcutta and Darji- 
ling). He remained here for five years, and during 
that time translated the New Testament into Bengali, 
and preached a great many times. In 1799 four Eng- 
lish Baptist missionaries (Marshman, Ward, Bruns- 
don, and Grant) arrived in Calcutta, but when they let 
their object be known, the governor-general determined 
to send them back to England. They put themselves 
under the protection of the Danish governor. Colonel 
Bie, at Serampore (near Calcutta), who gave them 
help and sympathy, and also refused to surrender them 
to the East India Company. Carey determined to 
leave his work at the indigo factory and join them. 
Thus began the work at Serampore, so famous in the 
history of missions. Here the missionaries entered 
into a compact to have all things common, and after 
purchasing a large house and printing-press, went 
heart and soul into that work which has made their 
names famous in history. Their time was occupied 
in preaching in the villages and streets, printing the 



History of Protestant Missions 1 83 



Bible and portions of it in Bengali, answering inqui- 
ries, and explaining the Christian religion to those 
who came to the house to hear. Their first convert 
was baptized in 1800, in the presence of a vast con- 
course of people, and in the following year they com- 
pleted the translation of the Bible in Bengali. Carey, 
on account of his linguistic abilities, was appointed 
professor of Sanskrit, Bengali, and Marathi in Fort 
William College, first at a salary of $3,000 a year, 
which was afterward increased to $7,500 a year, all 
of which was thrown into the common fund of the 
" Brotherhood " at Serampore, and which was of in- 
valuable help to them in their work. When Carey 
began his lectures in Bengali as professor, there 
was not a single prose work existing in that lan- 
guage. Now there are thousands of volumes flooding 
the country. 

These missionaries set the noble example of put- 
ting their heel on the head of the serpent, caste, at 
the very beginning. At the first communion service 
the cup was given to a low-caste man before it was to 
a Brahmin convert. 

This chapter is designed to be no more than a syn- 
opsis of the history of Protestant missions in India. 
Sherring's history will give the reader details of mis- 
sion work, its rise and development in different sec- 
tions of the country, and the different fields of the 
different societies. 

From these beginnings the work has extended, and 
the methods these early missionaries adopted are the 
methods, with variations, in use at the present day. 



184 



India and Daily Life in Bengal 



From time to time other societies, both from England 
and America, have planted mission stations east, west, 
north, and south, until there is at the present time a 
network of centers from Ceylon in the south to the 
Punjab in the north, and from Assam in the east to 
the river Indus in the west. It is true, vast numbers 
have no intelligent idea of Christianity, and millions 
have no idea at all except to know there is such a 
religion, but the centers are occupied and the light is 
radiating. 

We have no statistics of an earlier date than 185 1. 
Then there were 91,092 Protestant native Christians 
in India. In 188 1, or in thirty years, they had increased 
to 417,372; and ten years later, according to govern- 
ment statistics of 1891, to 559,661. 



NAME OF DENOMINATION. 



Baptist 

Congregational 

Episcopal 

Presbyterian 

Lutheran 

Methodist 

Moravian 

Woman's Societies 

Supplement 

Converts not connected with any 
of the above societies 

Total 



6 o 



10 
2 

6 

13 

7 
3 
3 
4 
I 



49 






DC 

a'S^i 



129 

76 

203 

149 

125 

IIO 

16 



808 



oj m u 

'^ c 

v« wo 

o boa • 

a *ji— Its 



640 

666 
119 
584 
413 
677 

23 



4122 



133,122 
77,466 

193,363 
34,395 
62,838 

32,381 
398 



ISO 



559,661 



History of Protestant Missions 185 



It would be very interesting, if this were the place 
for it, to give a brief outline of the forty-nine societies 
now operating in the country, — ^tell the fields they oc- 
cupy, the native and ordained agents of each, and the 
Christian communities of each. We will, for the sake 
of reference, group the cognate bodies together, re- 
gardless of the countries from which they came, and 
give a summary of statistics. The statistics of this 
table are condensed from the statistical report of the 
Decennial Missionary Conference of India, given in 
1890. 

The following are the number of Protestant mission 
societies at work in India: in 191 1, Baptists, 8; Con- 
gregationalists, 3 ; Church of England, 7 ; Presbyterian, 
17; Methodists, 5 ; Lutheran, 11 ; Disciples of Christ, 4; 
Friends, 2. Aside from these, there are fifty-four 
other societies at work along the same lines, as Chris- 
tian Alliance, Seventh-day Adventists, Pentecost Mis- 
sion, Church of God, Salvation Army, Y. M. C. A., 
Y. W. C. A., British and Foreign Bible Society, Tract 
Society, etc. 

There are many forms of work besides the direct 
preaching of the gospel, as hospitals, sanitariums, 
theological seminaries, publishing houses, industrial 
schools, training homes, homes for fallen women, 
homes for the blind, schools of all grades for general 
education, etc. 

I herewith submit the revised and up-to-date Chris- 
tian statistics. Compare the statistics of twenty years 
ago with these figures. These are from the cen- 
sus report, 1909-1910: Roman Catholics, 1,065,725; 



186 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

Romo-Syrians, 333,040; Anglican, 296,034; Jacobite- 
Syrian, 242,210; Baptists, 222,026; Lutheran, 159,- 
858; Methodists, 66,602; Presbyterians, 39,964; 
others, 248,854; total, 2,664,313. 

Of this number, it will be seen by subtracting the 
Roman Catholic communicants there is remaining i,- 
265,548 Protestants. Twenty years ago there were 
559,661. Nearly three hundred per cent in twenty 
years. And this numerical increase does not tell half 
the story. The way has been prepared, the field is 
white, and reapers may gather a golden harvest. Vil- 
lage after village is ready to accept Christianity. 

Workers, reapers is the need of the hour. 



CHAPTER XVI 
Mission Work and How Carried On 

DURING the time I have been in India, I have 
had the privilege of visiting a number of mis- 
sion fields besides our own, and have also had 
an opportunity of observing their methods of 
work. I find that most mission societies work along 
on about the same lines, so when I speak of our work, 
and perhaps of some personal experiences, they may 
be taken as representative of mission work in general 
so far as methods are concerned. 

Places where mission work is established are called 
either " stations " or " outstations." A station is the 
place where one or more missionaries live ; where there 
is a Christian church, and usually more or less of other 
lines of work. An outstation is a place connected 
with the station; i. e., under charge of one of the mis- 
sionaries of the station. There may or may not be 
a branch church or a school. There are lines of work 
in proportion to the size of the place and its impor- 
tance. In nearly all of the larger stations there is a 
native pastor as assistant to the missionary pastor. 
He is ordinarily a faithful and competent man, except 
that, as a rule, he lacks executive ability. In the 
church the services are conducted, upon the whole, 
about the same as they are in their respective denomi- 
nations at home. In some of our churches all the 

187 



/ 88 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

people sit on the floor on grass mats, while in others 
the women sit on the floor, and the men and boys on 
chairs and benches; while in still others, and especially 
in the large cities, all sit in chairs or pews. In our 
own mission the great majority of the people in our 
churches sit on the floor. This is the way they sit in 
their houses, so they prefer it to any other position. 

The service is conducted in the vernacular language 
of the place. There are one hundred and twenty lan- 
guages and dialects in India, so there are that many 
languages, or nearly as many, used in the services of 
the churches. In our mission there are four Indian 
languages besides the English used. The two princi- 
pal languages are those derived directly from the San- 
skrit, and these, therefore, are very similar; namely, 
Bengali and Oriya. Hindustani is a language which 
is generally understood by the better-educated natives 
all over India. This is used at times, and especially in 
preaching to up-country pilgrims. The fourth is the 
Santali, and entirely unlike these other three. It be- 
longs to another family of languages entirely, as the 
Santals were among the aborigines of the country, 
hundreds of years before the Sanskrit came into India. 

Our churches are built either of brick or mud, like 
buildings described in a previous chapter. The win- 
dows are of plain glass, if there are any glass windows. 
More often there is nothing in the windows but heavy, 
strong shutters. The seats are not upholstered, and 
the floor is not carpeted, save at times with grass mat- 
ting or large coarse cloth spreads. In country churches 
usually a temporary mat is spread just for that 



Mission Work ^"^ How Carried On 189 



particular service. The worshipers, as a rule, come 
dressed in clean white cotton clothes. There is some 
exception, but only enough to make a pleasing variety. 
Some of the women may have on yellow or purple silk, 
and some of the children bright red. A few of the 
more wealthy men may have on a black or tussur-silk 
chapkan.^ Those wearing the latter garment will 
have on pantaloons, while the greater number wear 
the dhute.^ The cloth of the women, whether it be 
pure white with a border of some bright color, or silk, 
is the sari.® The women have some jewelry on their 
wrists and fingers, and if vain and of means may have 
a heavy silver chain around the hips. 

Let us stand, if you please, at the gate in front of 
the church as the last bell on a Lord's Day morning is 
calling the people to worship. See them come from 
their homes and file along the narrow streets of 
their villages. Watch them as they enter the church, 
until it is nearly or quite full. Let us go in ourselves 
and look around. Here are the men and boys on one 
side, and the women and girls on the other. Perhaps 
we are surprised to see them so separated, but we must 
remember that among the Hindus the men and the wo- 
men do not sit together, nor eat together, nor walk 
along the street together. If a man and his wife are 
traveling together, he usually walks before her carrying 
an umbrella over his head, while she comes behind. If 
there is a baby to carry, she has it. Our native Chris- 

1 A long coat worn by the native men. 

2 A cloth five yards long which is wound around the loins and covers the legs to 
some extent. 

3 A cloth five yards long wound around the body, and coming over the head. 



190 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

tians cannot in a single generation cast all their prej- 
udices behind them, and sit with their women folks 
on the floor. They are learning more and more the 
true relationship of the family. A generation hence 
we shall probably see them all sitting together, but now 
we do not. 

We shall see behind the desk the dark- faced preacher, 
and hear him read from the same book we hear read 
in this country. Its precepts and promises find the 
same echo in hearts there as here, for like temptations 
and burdens come to them. He lifts his heart and 
voice to the same God for a blessing upon his flock. 
He prays for himself, that he may be able to speak the 
word in plainness and in love, and with the fulness of 
the Spirit. He reads a hymn. It may be a transla- 
tion from an English hymn, or written by one of the 
native hymn writers. I may say in passing that some 
of our native Christians are excellent hymn writers. 
It was Chrishna Pal, Carey's first convert, who wrote 
the hymn beginning with this verse : 

O thou, my soul, forget no more, 
The Friend who all thy sorrows bore; 
Let every idol be forgot, 
But, O my soul, forget him not! 

The congregation all join in singing the hymn. We 
are not used to their music, so it may sound discordant 
to us, and at times there is discord; but after we get 
used to their singing we rather enjoy it. The minister 
announces his text and preaches a sermon, good, bad, 
or indifferent, the same as we may hear in America. 
Usually, however, they preach with eloquence and 



Mission Work and How Carried On 191 



fervor. It would not always happen that the native 
pastor would be preaching. If the missionary pastor 
were in the station, he might be preaching. If we 
would realize the benefits Christianity has conferred on 
these people, contrast their appearance and character 
with Hindus of the same social grade. 

There are those among English officials who de- 
nounce missionary effort and native Christians. I 
have seen some such. The trouble is they have not 
been looking for the best types. The story is told of 
one such going home to England. On the ship was 
also a missionary returning. The official was not slow 
in denouncing the native Christians. " In fact," said 
he, '' I have never seen a genuine native Christian." 
He had been a great sportsman, and talked often of his 
tiger hunts and the number he had shot. The mission- 
ary said to him one day, ^' I have been in India twenty 
years, and have never seen a tiger. You say you have 
seen many. You have been in India five years, and 
you say you have never seen a native Christian. I 
have seen many. You have been looking for tigers, 
and I for Christians. We have both found what we 
have been looking for." 

All our native Christians are not faithful. Some- 
times they do not come to the prayer meetings and 
other social meetings of the church. There are some 
who quarrel, and it is not impossible to find those 
who will cheat and even lie. I have heard of such 
things in churches in America, where for all our lives 
through we have been taught of Christ and his pre- 
cepts, and where good influences instead of evil have 

N 



/ 92 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

surrounded us. But while there are the unfaithful, 
there are also the faithful ones. There are those who 
will suffer as much persecution, and endure as many 
hardships, and are as abundant in labor, as those of 
any land or in any age. 

In every station there are more or less schools to 
be looked after. There is no such thing as co-educa- 
tion, except with very small children; therefore the 
Christian boys' schools and girls' schools are separate 
institutions. There is a secretary for each. There 
may be a separate one for each, or one person can be 
secretary for both. The secretary is the important of- 
ficial in a school there. He has the financial responsi- 
bility, pays the teachers, collects the fees and fines, 
makes returns monthly to the government of attend- 
ance and receipts from all sources, etc. 

The government is liberal in its grants to mission 
schools, and is deserving of the thanks of all mission- 
aries. In consideration of these grants, it reserves the 
right to inspect schools and prescribe text-books. It 
is better for the schools that they should be subject to 
government inspection, for the teachers do better work, 
and the pupils have a better standing. There is quite 
a large range of text-books, so that suitable ones can 
be had. I can say, after having been secretary of a 
number of schools for many years, that I never suf- 
fered inconvenience nor had my plans thwarted by 
government interference. In our Christian boys' 
schools there are always Hindu and Mohammedan boys 
as well as Christian boys. Every morning our school 
was opened with the reading of the Bible, singing, and 



Mission Work and How Carried On 1 93 



prayer. We cannot compel Hindu or Mohammedan 
boys to be present at these, but as a matter of fact, 
they are generally there, and frequently take part in 
these exercises. The last year we were in Balasore, 
a Hindu boy took the first prize for proficiency in 
Bible study. 

We aim to put Christian teachers in these schools 
as far as possible, but it often happens that we can get 
a better teacher among the Hindus than we can avail- 
able men in our Christian community. There is a vast 
difference between putting a Hindu teacher in one of 
our Hindu schools, and putting a Hindu teacher in 
a Christian school under missionary supervision. A 
Hindu teacher in these little Hindu schools may in five 
minutes after the missionary has left the school (after 
inspection) counteract anything he may have said by 
explaining it away, or making it apply to their religion. 
In a Christian school it is very different. The teacher's 
work there is not to teach religion, but secular branches 
of study. He in no way interferes with the religion 
of his pupils. If he is a Hindu and should speak 
against the Christian religion, there would be any 
number of boys to report him. He would not jeopard- 
ize his position by doing so. Besides, the Christian 
boys in the school have other Christian influences 
thrown about them in the home, and Sunday-school, 
and church. To teach the principles of Christianity is 
not the object of the school. The object is to give the 
boys a good education, and for this purpose a good 
teacher is necessary. I would say that we should put 
the best teachers we can get in our Christian schools, 



194 India and Daily Life in Bengal 



but put only Christian teachers in our little Hindu 
schools. The object desired must govern our action. 

Almost every missionary must spend from one to 
three or four hours a day at his writing-desk. He 
has quite an army of Christian workers, and with each 
of these he must keep an account. If he is a secretary 
of a school, he has all reports to look after and make 
out for the government, and to keep the school ac- 
counts. He must make out his estimates for his work 
for the home society, and his report to it. He has 
many personal correspondents. From all over the 
home land, more or less, there are coming requests for 
something to read at the mission society or the yearly 
conference. The editors of our papers and magazines 
say sometimes, and, in fact, often, '' Write us more 
articles." Then, in addition to this, many missionaries 
do a great deal of literary work. School books are 
written, and tracts of different kinds in the vernacular, 
and translations are made from English books. When 
we remember that when Carey began his work in 
India, a century ago, there was not a single prose work 
in Bengal in the vernacular, and no literature of a 
pure character at all, and that now the Bible has been 
translated into almost every dialect, and thousands of 
books and tracts can be had, we can see that somebody 
has done something in the literary line. Then also the 
missionary has contributed to the literature of the 
world by giving us works on science, philosophy, re- 
ligion, etc., of not only India, but all other countries 
into which he has gone. 

In almost every large station there is some attempt 




Thatching a himgaloiv 




A typical sawmill 



Mission Work and How Carried On 1 95 



to teach the Christian boys and girls some useful trade. 
These industrial schools, or an industrial department 
to the day-schools, are becoming a necessity. The 
government is also seeing this, and offering very 
liberal grants to efficient schools of this kind. These 
are especially needed in Christian communities, for 
we want Christian artisans as well as teachers and 
preachers. Every preacher and teacher ought to 
know how to do something more than simply to preach 
and to teach. If the people can get hold of this idea, 
a long step will be made toward India's redemption. 
The people have been in the habit of thinking that if 
a man is a clerk or a teacher, he must not soil his 
hands with manual labor. As a result, there are thou- 
sands with a good education who have no employment, 
and are of no use to society. The aim in establishing 
these industrial schools is not only to teach a useful 
trade, but to teach that manual labor, even for a 
preacher or a teacher, is far more honorable than idle- 
ness. 

Nearly all missions have schools of a higher grade, 
and some have theological seminaries and colleges. 
Missions need the best-trained men they can get. 
Hinduism has able scholars, and Christianity must 
be able to put men of intellect in the field. It is still 
the '' foolishness of preaching," but the preaching of 
such men as Paul had a wonderful influence on the 
heathen mind. Through the schools of various grades 
our native Christians are pushing their way to the 
front very fast. In proportion to their numbers, they 
are outstripping all others in government examinations. 



196 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

Through the law of the " survival of the fittest," 
Christianity must make its way. But we are not to 
conquer by that slow and natural process, but by the 
might of God's Spirit. A prominent place is given to 
Sunday-school work, young people's meetings, temper- 
ance societies, meetings for mothers, teachers' meet- 
ings, etc. No effort is being spared to put our Chris- 
tians on a higher plane intellectually and spiritually. 

Aside from the work for our native Christians, a 
great many kinds of work are being carried on for the 
conversion of the heathen. There are schools for 
poor Hindu children here and there throughout the 
cities and towns. These are called " ragged schools," 
but really they should be called naked schools; for, as 
a matter of fact, many of the children come naked, or 
nearly so. You may find these schools in various 
places, — sometimes under the spreading limbs of a 
banyan tree, sometimes on the veranda of a house, and 
sometimes in a house built on purpose for them. The 
teacher may be a Christian man or woman, or a Hindu. 
These schools are, as a rule, under the supervision of 
some lady missionary, and she visits them as often as 
possible to inspect the work being done, and teach Bible 
verses and stories and the catechism. 

The great event in the year with the children of 
these schools is the annual distribution of presents. 
Friends from England and America send out dolls, 
patchwork, and various other things, so that this occa- 
sion is made possible. Some lady of the station pre- 
sides to distribute the presents, and the superintendent 
reads out the names. When Phulmani, Malati, Sun- 




Zenana teachers starting for zvork 



Mission Work and How Carried On 197 



dari, Haramani, and many other similar names are 
called off, the possessor goes forward to receive her 
present. It is almost needless to say that on such oc- 
casions they are dressed in the best the house can af- 
ford. When they receive their presents, each makes 
a low bow, which is about the only demonstration 
observed. 

The work of the zenana teacher is important. A 
glance at the life of these women and their homes will, 
I think, convince us of this. The zenana in Bengal is 
the home of the high-caste women. These women are 
married even before they are women. At the tender 
age of eleven or twelve years they go to live with their 
husbands, whom they may never have seen before, and 
in the selection of whom they have had no choice. 
This is done by the parents. The time for the wedding 
is when the village astrologer says the sun, moon, and 
stars are auspicious. It is a great time in the home of 
the bride the day she is married, for all the relatives 
and friends must be feasted, and the air is filled with 
the music of the village band, and garlands of flowers 
adorn the house and premises. But it seems to us 
that the happy days must be over when the marriage 
ceremony is over; for the little girl-wife is put in a 
palky * and carried to the home of her husband's 
father, which to her is a strange house. Here she is 
placed under the care of her mother-in-law, who may 
treat her kindly or who may not. If we can believe 
half we hear, the latter is more likely to be her lot. 

4 A long box with poles at each end and with doors at the sides, by means of 
which people are carried on the shoulders of men. 



f98 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

Her husband stands by his mother rather than by his 
wife, so is it any wonder that many days and nights 
are spent in loneHness and crying? Not only is there 
but Httle joy in the home, but she is shut out from all 
the beauties of the outside world, for she is a prisoner 
now for life. The house may have a number of win- 
dows, but they are high and barred, and there is but 
one outside door, which she must never approach. 
From the court in the center she can see some grass 
and flowers which may be growing in it, and always 
the sky overhead, but that is all. If she ever returns 
to see her mother's home, it must be in this same palky, 
with a colored cloth tied closely over it so that she 
cannot even look out. 

Until recently none of these women could even read 
or write, as the Hindus did not think it necessary to 
educate girls. Our lady missionaries wanted to enter 
these homes, and a way was opened through the desire 
of the native gentlemen to have their wives learn fancy 
work. Mrs. Mullins, of Calcutta, was the first to gain 
access to these prison homes by agreeing to teach the 
babu's wife how to make embroidered slippers, with 
the privilege of teaching her at the same time to read 
the Bible. That was the key which unlocked the door, 
and it has remained open ever since. 

If you were in a mission station at Midnapore or 
Balasore, you would see each morning either a large 
covered wagon, or a number of native carts, coming to 
the home of the superintendent, and from here start 
to the bazaars. Either all the native Christian women 
teachers would congregate here or at some point on 



Mission Work and How Carried On 199 



the road, where they could be taken up. In these con- 
veyances they are taken down in the vicinity of the 
zenanas, where they separate, going two by two into 
the houses. They teach the women to read, write, sew, 
and embroider. They must learn to read before you 
can put good books into their hands. The object of 
this work is not only to brighten their lives for to-day, 
but to open the door of their hearts for the entering in 
of the Light which will help to brighten their lives all 
through the years to come. 

Each morning also you might see the superintend- 
ent starting off on her rounds to visit these same 
houses. She must see that faithful work is being done 
by the teachers, and look to the progress of the pupils 
in secular and religious knowledge. This is her op- 
portunity really to accomplish the work which is up- 
permost in her heart — the bringing of her pupils to 
Christ. 

Another part of the work is the sending out of 
Bible women. These women are lay preachers really, 
and go from house to house just as the zenana teachers 
do, only they do not go so much to the homes of the 
rich, and their work is not to teach reading and wri- 
ting, but to evangelize. They sit upon the verandas, 
or; in the rooms, and read the Bible, sing hymns, talk, 
and pray with the women who gather around them. 
They find many sad lives, but are sometimes able to 
inspire hope by telling the story of Christ's life, and 
what he came to do for those who accept him. 

Connected with almost every mission is at least 
one orphanage for both boys and girls. These of 



200 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

course are separate, and the girls' are generally the 
fullest, as people will always part with their girls first. 
These are filled from various sources. Sometimes the 
mother dies, and the father cannot care for all the 
family. Sometimes both die, and the children either 
hear of these homes for the homeless, and wander to 
them themselves, or some one brings them. Some- 
times the police find a child by the wayside. In this 
way they come, and are provided with a home, and are 
cared for and educated. Some of our best workers 
come from these homes. 

Bazaar preaching is also carried on in all the larger 
stations. The bazaar, we must remember, is the busi- 
ness part of a town, so bazaar preaching is simply 
street preaching. This work is always done in the 
evening, and for two reasons. One is, it is cooler, and 
we can work with no fear of the sun ; and the other is, 
we can meet the people. The principal meal of the 
day is eaten just before the people retire at night, and 
they come to the bazaar to buy food for this meal and 
for the following day's dinner. This is why we can find 
people in the evening. There are also, in larger sta- 
tions, rest-houses for pilgrims where, for a few cents, 
they may cook and eat and rest for the night, or even 
at times for a few days. We may, therefore, always 
meet more or less of these at our preaching stand. 

The question has often been asked me, '' How do 
you conduct bazaar preaching?" In the station in 
which we lived, Balasore, there were two principal 
bazaars, and in each of these we had a preaching stand. 
These stands were simply platforms of brickwork, and 



Mission Work and How Carried On 201 



situated in the most public places in the bazaars. At 
about six o'clock I would meet one or two of the 
native preachers at one or the other of these stands. 
We might have with us a man to sell tracts, or we 
might ourselves have some. We would begin by sing- 
ing a hymn, or playing upon some instrument. The 
music would attract the people, and from the shops 
near-by or the market square they would begin to 
gather around the stand. It might be pilgrims would be 
passing, and hearing the singing would stop. When 
the singing was over, we might offer a short prayer, 
or read a few passages of Scripture, or proceed at once 
to address the people. We must always bear in mind 
that we are preaching to people who know but little, 
and often nothing, of the Christian religion, therefore 
our preaching must be simple and explanatory as a 
rule. If it would attract attention, it must abound with 
illustrations. This might serve as one : " Midnapore 
is north of us, and Cuttack is south. If you were walk- 
ing south and wanted to go to Midnapore, what would 
you do?" The answer would come back from the 
crowd, " Turn around and go In the other direction." 
Then you apply your illustration : " Heaven is a pure 
place, and God is pure, but if you are walking in sin 
you are going away from this pure place. What must 
you do to go to heaven?" "Turn around." Then 
we may tell them of Christ, who is the way to the 
Father. Simple Bible illustrations and parables are 
always profitable. The story of the Prodigal Son al- 
ways arrests their attention. Personal experiences are 
good; and especially if some self-righteous, conceited 



202 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

young Brahmin wants to argue. Tell the people how 
your life, your hopes, your ambitions, your desires, 
have all been changed. Tell them how, by accepting 
Christ, he has saved you from the love of sin, from the 
guilt of sin, and from the power of the Evil One. Now 
you may say, '' Here is a young man who says Hindu- 
ism is as good as any religion. Let him get up on the 
platform and tell you how it has saved him from a 
sinful life, and changed the current of his life entirely." 
Of course he has no experience of that kind, and 
usually he has nothing more to say. 

We do not always have an orderly crowd. There 
may be lepers there, who have business in view. They 
catch your eye, and reach out their distorted hands for 
a little money. Some man wants to sell a cow^ or a 
goat by auction, and thinks that crowd would be a 
good one to bid. You must tell him that for the time 
being this is a preaching stand, but when you leave he 
can use it to auction off his cow. 

Some young men from the college who are studying 
English may want to tell what they have learned 
against Christianity from Ingersoll's or some other 
infidel works. Brahmin priests may be there to oppose. 
Their craft is in danger, and they must not sit quietly 
by and see it destroyed. Pilgrims are there. These 
have gone long journeys, seeking rest and freedom, 
and are weary and heavy-laden both with a sense of 
their need and the fatigue of the way. To invite such 
unto the One who said, *' Come unto me, all 3^e that 
labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest," 
is a blessed privilege. Sometimes they come. All the 



Mission Work and How Carried On 203 



seed sown is not sown on good ground, neither is it all 
wasted. As in the parable of the Sower, so it is here. 
I have known of a number of conversions as the result 
of bazaar preaching. 

In many respects country work is the most enjoyable 
and inspiring of any work the missionary has to do. 
As a rule, it is carried on in the cold season. We al- 
ready know what this is like. The telling of our mes- 
sage to those who have never heard it adds new in- 
terest to the work. ''How is it conducted? Tell us 
all about it," are questions I have to answer often. 
When the rains are over, and the fields are dry, we 
overhaul our tents and put them in order, look over 
our books and tracts and order more if necessary, see 
what food supplies we have, and notify our native 
workers when we are going to start. 

Our carts are secured for a month, and are brought 
to the house to be loaded. Our tent-poles are tied 
under the cart, and a stretcher or cot-bed put on the 
cover. Inside we put bedding, tents, books, food, and 
water, a change or two of clothes for ourselves, and 
many other things. Two or three lanterns, and as 
many bottles of kerosene oil will be tied to the slats of 
the cover. Each of the native brethren has a box, with 
a blanket and a shawl tied on the top of it, which he 
wishes to put in some place. With difficulty you find 
a place for these. The man who drives the bullocks 
has a bundle of wood to cook the bullocks' food (and 
his own), an old oil tin in which to boil it, a box, and a 
bundle of straw. We readjust and get these in or on. 
"Are we ready to start?" No; here comes the cook 



204 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

with a box of cooking utensils, six chickens tied to- 
gether by the legs, and his own box. We offer a silent 
prayer for more grace and patience, and with strings 
and twisted straw gtt these disposed of. " Now hitch 
on your bullocks, and let us be off quickly, for it is 
getting very late." Then tlie cartman comes and 
asks for a little oil to grease his cart. '' Have you not 
greased your cart yet? Why did you not grease it 
before you loaded it? " The question may have just a 
little of an impatient sound in it, if we are not careful, 
but we proceed to get the oil ; for he tells us, " In this 
country it is the custom to grease carts after they are 
loaded." We get two or three men to help, the 
cart is greased, the driver lifts up the yoke, and tells 
the bullocks to walk under their burden; he gets 
astride the tongue, gives each one a blow, and we 
are really off. 

The objective point is at first some bungalow, or a 
village where there is none. If the latter, we find some 
shady knoll if we can, and here we pitch our tent and 
make ourselves as comfortable as possible. Our native 
brethren have a tent close beside ours. Before retiring 
we ask them into our tent, read a portion of the word, 
and each joins in prayer and asks God's blessing upon 
us and the work we are to do in the village. We get 
in our cot, and tuck our mosquito netting as carefully 
around us as possible, for we do not want any stray 
centipede or scorpion as a bedfellow. We do not fall 
asleep at once, for there are many sounds outside the 
tent. The jackal, which has a keen scent for good 
things to eat, has come a mile to get a bit of the 



Mission Work and How Carried On 205 



chicken we may have left from dinner. Half a dozen 
others are with him, or he is calling to them from 
a distance. His shrill bark is not conducive to sleep. 
The dogs in the village — lean, cross, scabby dogs — 
seem to think something unusual has happened, and 
they keep up a constant barking. Not far away is a 
village temple, and the priests and their sons are sing- 
ing from the sacred books. The music is in a high key, 
and sounds like the song of the plowboys. Is it the 
singing of priests or the singing of children in the 
Sunday-school ? Are we in India or America ? Some- 
times it seems like one, and sometimes like the other, 
and we awake with the sun shining through the open- 
ing of our tent. The cook prepares us a little break- 
fast, and we are ready for the work we came to do. 
We hail a passer-by, and inquire for the head man in 
the village. He tells us his name, and shows us where 
he lives. We go and call on him. If he is a friendly 
man ; i. e., friendly to us, he will come out and put his 
hands together, raise them to his forehead, and make 
a low bow. Then he brings out a piece of grass mat- 
ting, and asks us to sit down. The veranda on the 
outside is the reception-room for all men who are not 
members of the family. His name may be Hori Pra- 
sad Das. We talk to him of his crops, cows, and chil- 
dren, and a few things of this nature, and then perhaps 
ask him if he would like to hear some good news. He 
always likes to hear good news, and we tell him the 
best news ever told the world : 

"As you have sacred books, so do we; and our 
book tells us of God and how he created man, and how 



206 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

man by sin went far away from God. It tells us of 
God's great interest in man, and how he tried to bring 
man back to him by sending his Son into the world, 
who took our nature, and was tried and tempted as we 
are, but did not sin. He had compassion for the sin- 
ful and suffering, and did all he could to help them. 
He gave the world the best teaching it has ever re- 
ceived, and the people who live the nearest these teach- 
ings are the best and happiest. If all would accept him 
and live by his teachings, it would turn our sorrowful 
world into a heaven. At last he was sacrificed as an 
offering for sin, and he arose from the grave, and 
now lives to help all who want to come to him and 
follow after him. He is the great Teacher, and he 
wants us all to become his disciples." We talk like this 
to Hori Babu, and while we are talking many of his 
neighbors gather in his yard, and sit down upon their 
heels to listen. We may ask him if he would not like 
to accept this Teacher as his teacher. He would tell us, 
probably, " What you say is very good, and those are 
certainly good teachings which Christ taught ; but if I 
should accept them and become a Christian, my land- 
lord would dispossess me, and my wife would disown 
me, and my children would not call me father, and my 
people would cast me out." It is a difficult thing for 
poor Hori, and yet some accept; not at first, but after 
repeated efforts. Then a little school is started in his 
village, and a Christian man is put in it, and they work 
with Hori's family and neighbors until a church grows 
out of that small beginning. In this way little lights 
are being kindled here and there, and they are grow- 



Mission Work and How Carried On 207 

ing larger, and penetrating farther into the darkness 
around. Just when the rays from thousands of centers 
shall cross each other, and all India be enveloped in the 
*' Light of the world," none of us knows; but the time 
is surely coming, and may be much nearer than even 
the most sanguine of us think. May God hasten the 
day! 



CHAPTER XVII 
The Prospect for Success 

A RETURNED missionary lady was asked to 
prepare a paper in one of the recent May 
anniversaries in London, on the subject of 
" Discouragements in Mission Work in In- 
dia." She went on the platform, announced her sub- 
ject, and simply said " There are none," and sat down. 
There are some, yea, many obstacles; and coming 
events so cast their shadows before, that it sometimes 
seems darker than it really is. But the prospects are as 
good as the promises of God. Let us glance at a few 
of the hopeful signs : 

The opposition of the Brahmins is encouraging. 
There was a time when they ignored missionary ef- 
forts, or smiled at their futile attempts. They were 
like men in a fortress gray with age, and strong, who 
were watching a few pygmies trying to batter down 
the walls. They said, like the Samaritans who saw 
the Jews trying to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, 
" What do these feeble Jews? " They said, " Hindu- 
ism is old, and strongly entrenched in the lives and 
customs of our people, and we are a conservative na- 
tion; therefore, what will the efforts of these few 
missionaries amount to? " But their indifference has 
turned into opposition in some places, and that of the 
most bitter kind. 

208 



The Prospect for Success 209 



Only a few years ago the Madras Hindu Tract So- 
ciety was organized to counteract the influence of 
Christian tracts. It was not the purpose of this society 
so much to set forth the excellences of the Hindu re- 
ligion, as it was to oppose the Christian religion. Not 
very long ago, in the city of Benares, a great meeting 
of the Brahmins and pundits was called for the pur- 
pose of devising ways and means to stop the progress 
of Christianity. It was first a meeting of fasting and 
prayer, and then they discussed their plans. They said, 

These that have turned the world upside down are 
come hither also.' Their women enter our homes, and 
are turning away the hearts of our wives, and the 
teachers in the schools are perverting the minds of 
our children, and our ears are filled with their bazaar 
preaching, and their books and tracts are going as 
silent messengers into our homes. Unless we adopt 
their methods, we shall be left behind in the race." So 
they issue and distribute their tracts, and preach in the 
bazaars against Christianity, and often try to disturb 
us in our preaching. They forget that it is the living 
Christ and not methods which is the source of success. 
They may try to attach Christian methods to a lifeless 
religion, but they cannot restore it to life. 

The people are becoming unsettled religiously. They 
have the Brahmo-Somaj, the aim of which is to reform 
Hinduism; and the Arya-Somaj, which promises to 
restore to the people primitive Hinduism. Theosophy 
and sundry isms find here a hotbed in which to grow. 
They want something they haven't got, and are grasp- 
ing for it here and there. 



21 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

There is a feeling on the part of many of the peo- 
ple that Hinduism is to die, and that Christianity is to 
be the religion of the country. Often in the bazaar 
while preaching we hear this confession, " Christianity 
is to be the religion after a time." " Why, then, will 
you not accept it? " " We cannot," they say, '' come 
alone, but when all the rest of the villages get ready to 
come then we will come." 

The more thoughtful ones know that there is no 
power in Hinduism to elevate the people or to make 
them better. I was once in my cold-season work visit- 
ing a large village, at the head of which was a very in- 
telligent man. In the course of a conversation with 
him, I said, " Babu, I want to ask you a few questions 
about the Hindu religion." 

" Very well," he said, " ask anything you wish." 

" Are your people more truthful than they were 
many hundreds of years ago? " 

He replied, " No, I do not think they are truth- 
ful. In fact, you can hardly find a really truthful man. 
We have a proverb that says, ' If a man will not lie, 
neither shall he eat.' " 

" Are your people more honest and upright in their 
dealings than they were a thousand years ago?" 

*' I do not think they are as much so. You can 
hardly find a man who will not take advantage in a 
deal," he replied. 

*' Are your people more chaste and virtuous ? " 

" There are very few pure-minded people." 

" How long has Hinduism prevailed in this coun- 
try? " I asked. 



The Prospect for Success 211 



'' Three thousand years or more," he repHed. 

" If you have had Hinduism for so many years, and 
your people are getting no better, but, as you confess, 
worse, when are they to be made better by Hinduism? " 

He said : " We have no hope for our people in this 
age. Our sacred books tell us of an age of truth, and 
when that comes we shall be made better." 

It gave me great satisfaction to say to him, '' The age 
of truth is already here. When Christ came and be- 
gan his great work, he said, * I am the way, the 
truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father 
but by me.' The age of truth that you have been look- 
ing for is found in Christ, and all that you hope from 
that age is found in him." 

Caste is the great strength of Hinduism, and those 
rules are evidently weakening. Caste is a chain which 
was forged by the higher classes to be put upon the 
necks of the lower classes. They are finding out that 
the chain forged for the necks of others is a most gall- 
ing chain upon their own necks, and many of the more 
thoughtful ones would be more than glad to have it 
broken, 

I was once detained for two days in company with a 
native gentleman in a small canal boat, waiting for the 
Calcutta steamer. I had with me my cook and a basket 
of food, and he had a cook with him and some native 
foods. Our meals were prepared separately, but when 
brought in we each shared freely the food of the other. 
During these tedious two days we became very commu- 
nicative, and he told me freely of his family affairs, 
which were, briefly, something like this: He had five 



212 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

daughters and one son, and belonged to the caste next 
below the Brahmins. The marrying of his daughters 
to suitable men in his caste had cost him all he had 
earned or could ever hope to earn, though he was get- 
ting a splendid salary from the government. The caste 
rules of the Hindus compelled him to get husbands for^ 
his daughters in the same caste, and these husbands 
brought a big price. If he could go outside his caste, 
he would have no difficulty ; but as it was, he was bound 
hand and foot. He denounced the system as galling 
and iniquitous. The fact that he freely ate with me 
showed how little he regarded it. At length the 
steamer came along, and we found on board a native 
deputy magistrate from Balasore. This was early in 
the morning before we had eaten our morning meal. 
I told my man to prepare me some tea and toast, and 
then turned and asked these two native gentlemen if 
they would not allow me to have some toast prepared 
for them. Of course they refused. I did not expose the 
man who had been freely eating my bread the day be- 
fore. Then he was with me, and now he was with his 
fellow-caste man. We kept in this boat until we got 
to the end of the canal at Gewakallie. As the boat 
was not going up until morning, the deputy magistrate 
and I hired a rowboat to take us across to Diamond 
Harbor, where we could get the train for Calcutta. 
This was a ride of several miles, and on the way sup- 
per-time came, and each of us brought out our lunch- 
baskets. Now the gentleman who so graciously re- 
fused my offer of food in the morning was ready to 
share with me the contents of my basket, while I 



The Prospect for Success 2 13 



helped him eat his native sweets. In the presence of 
each other neither of these native gentlemen would 
touch my food, but away from each other both would. 
So it is. Thousands of the educated people despise 
caste, and yet they are held to its rules for fear of each 
other. 

I called once on a native civil surgeon, who was act- 
ing for the time being for our European civil surgeon 
of Balasore. I said, " I suppose, doctor, you com- 
pleted your medical studies in Europe." He replied, 
" No ; fool that I was, I did not go to England. I 
had a great desire to, but our caste rules prevented it, 
and I observed them to my great detriment. I have 
put before me an insurmountable barrier to any fur- 
ther promotion. I have wished a hundred times I had 
gone in spite of them ; in fact, it is a daily cause of re- 
gret." When such a feeling becomes general, caste 
will go, just as their houses go after they are all eaten 
up with white ants. Only a shell remains, which is 
ready to crumble to pieces. 

Our army of native helpers is a most encouraging 
feature in the work. There was a time in the history 
of every mission when there were no native workers^ 
and how the hearts of the missionaries leaped for joy 
when they got perhaps only one or two, and these of 
an indifferent quality ; but those days are past. Every 
mission has some, and many missions many of these. 
Some of them are educated, talented men, and many 
of them are men of zeal and deep piety, and would be 
an honor to any pulpit in any country. One of our 
own native preachers, Suchied Ananda Rai, I would 



214 India and Daily Life in Bengal 

be proud to put in any pulpit in America if he could 
use English as well as he can Bengali. Chundra Lela 
also is an illustrious example of what Christianity can 
do for the race. In another chapter I have spoken 
more at length on the different branches of Christian 
work carried on through the help of these native 
agencies. Our native Christians are pushing them- 
selves to the front, and it is only a question of time 
when they will exert a great influence in the country. 
The Hindu must be converted, or make way for the 
superior class, which is by the power of the gospel 
being raised up out of their midst. 



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